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I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.! 



THE 



PROBLEM OF EVIL 



OR 



THEORY AND THEOLOGY, 



TO WHICH IS PREFIXED 



PREPARATORY AXIOMS, QUERIES AND COROLLARIES; AND 
FOLLOWED WITH AN APPENDIX. 



The absent danger greater still appears ; 

And less he fears who's near the thing he fears." 

— Danibi,. 



MADISON, WIS. : 

WM. J. PARK & CO., 11 King St. 

1877. 



Tr 



7P4 



coPTKianT, 
1877. 



DAVID ATWOOD, STEREOTYPER AND TKINTER, 
MADISON, WIS. 



PREFACE, 



A preface is supposed to be a key to what the author has at- 
tempted to do in his work, or a kind of private chat between the 
reader aud the writer. And as in our case the reader will hardly un- 
derstand the object and the tenor of our production except through 
an explanation of its intent; therefore, to all who may chance to read 
this little volume, we desire to whisper before they begin, that it was 
not written with the expectation of pleasing those who are exacting 
and scrupulous in the arrangement of sentences, or in the showy 
combination of words and phrases. Neither was it written to satisfy 
the demands of the cold critic in mere artistic beauty, or simple me- 
chanical book finish and completeness; but written for those who 
earnestly and anxiously wish to pry into the dark problem of human 
sorrow, and earthly disorder, with all the anxiety and perseverance 
with winch a lost child seeks the homeward way, or seeks a road 
through the thick brambles which may hedge its path or hinder its 
journey home. 

And, as with this child, it is the end in view that fills the entire 
thought and that binds and holds the heart captive — as with this 
child it is not the time requisite in attaining the end — not so much 
the labor of attaining it that demands special attention or especial 
anxiety, but the certainty of attaining it; so we in tins earnest 
search for a path over the mountains of moral mystery and through 
the brambles of difficulty surrounding the subject of moral evil, 
will have done well if we may find (Jby this route) the way to our 
Great Father's loving arms, and also arrive at a clear and a satis- 
factory solution of our knotty question, in any manner whatever, or 
by any method, however clumsy and commonplace. 

And, as men pushing their way into some wild wilderness coun- 
try are generally pleased, and well may be pleased, with blazed 



4 PREFACE. 

trees (leading over rough and winding ways and through fordable, 
yet unbridged streams, only so they are sure the way is compara- 
tively safe and leads to the desired locality); and as these men veiy 
reasonably conclude that time and energy will mark and pave along 
that route a shorter and plainer path, so we conclude that active 
genius and theological industry in coming time will enlarge, sim- 
plify and beautify any path we may now be able to find and follow 
to the long sought — long coveted goal; or to the solution of this 
intricate problem of evil.* 

To some, and perhaps to many who may chance to pick up this 
volume, the subject may seem uninteresting and repulsive, and the 
manner of treating it dry and unreadable; but if they reflect a mo- 
ment, they may perhaps see that very much of the good which per- 
tains to the present life, and all that gathers into the thoughts and 
hopes of the next, have their root and their reason in some solution 
or disposal of this ever-present problem. 

Hence, in this way the need, if not the desire of understanding 
the subject — the need, if not the determination to do all that can 
be done to fathom it fully, can be readily seen; if in fact (by all 
thinking men) such work is not at once coveted, embraced and 
prized as all-important. 

Let this, then, be the apology for the appearance of this volume, 
and also for the plain and earnest manner in which it is written. 

Again, the peculiar style of the first few chapters may embarrass 

* Since this volume (except the appendix) was in type, we have learned 
that Dr. Baymond of the Biblical Institute (Evanston, Illinois), is publish- 
ing a work on " Systematic Theology," and inasmuch as his especial atten- 
tention has been called to this subject of moral .evil during the last few 
years, we may reasonably look for something fresh and pointed, from his 
sharp and polished pen upon this important topic. True, we were urged 
by a few of our good brethren to publish this volume because of ceitain 
paper criticisms made over two years since, upon two of the Doctor's lec- 
tures, or upon that part of them in which he essayed to give a key to ihe 
mystery of moral evil, in few yet plain and emphatic words. The lectures 
were delivered before the graduating class of 1874, and the key he then gave, 
the reader will lind on page 158 of this work. That is the last ana best we 
have seen in print from his pen on the subject, but the friction of the last 
two years has probably elicited sparks of new light which will shine out 
in his new and forthcoming volume. We will hope and wait; but will think 
and work while we wait and hope. 



PREFACE. 

many, and especially those who are not accustomed to think in that 
manner. Hence, they may find it very difficult, at first, to so shake 
themselves free from Bible ideas respecting God and His work, as 
to fully discover the exceeding darkness which shrouds or hangs 
over nature, without some means of explaining its strange hostility 
to man. But by a little discipline in that direction, all will, doubt- 
less, become clear and plain. 

Our opening exhibit, of Axioms, Queries and Corrolaries, too, 
may, to many minds, seem at first thought out of place and un- 
called for; but upon a little reflection, they may deem them just 
in place and all-important as the first stepping stones in any argu- 
ment (with or without a Bible), for either the existence of God, or 
for any reasonable solution of the moral condition and physical sur- 
roundings of man. For if we, as men, have no real and conscious 
existence, or if we are not distinct from the material world — are 
not the accountable creatures of a wise and a powerful Creator — 
are not moral beings, in fact, then all argumentation touching the 
existing ills of earth and time is fully closed up and finished, and 
all the lines and traces of thought on such subjects blotted out for- 
ever. Therefore if men are not moral agents, and if the Creator is 
not distinct from his creations, the problem of evil sinks out of sight, 
or is lost and swallowed up in the Creator himself, i. e., in nature. 

Hence, unless we are prepared to adopt the bald errors of Panthe- 
ism (the notion that God is the Universe and the Universe God), or 
if we are not ready to foolishly affirm that there can be two absolute 
beings (one good and the other evil, after the notion of the Mani- 
chean philosophy, see page 108), then we must adopt and be gov- 
erned by the principles and spirit of these axioms. In other words, 
we might as well attempt to constitute a moral council or a theol- 
ogical club of the gearings of a mill or the wheels of a watch, as to 
do so out of so many fixtures in nature or factors of fate, or out of 
so many men and women who are not moral agents. Accountabil- 
ity being a fundamental ingredient in the make up both of men 
and of angels. For, in this accountability, only, do we find the 
responsibility for their moral beauty or deformity before God. 
Yet, to-day, a gentleman informed me that God made the devil, 
which was remarkable news surely. And when the proof for this 



6 PREFACE. 

statement was asked for, it did not appear to lie around just handy; 
did not appear to lie anywhere; was not to be found. And it 
seems sad and strange that men of good, fair sense cannot see the 
difference between Cain in his cradle-bed and Cain a murderer, fly- 
ing as a fugitive to the land of Nod. We are ready to say that 
God made the child (Cain), but to say that God made the first mur- 
derer, or made the devil, is blasphemy; for, Cain could not be a 
murderer except by taking the life of some one. And if we know 
anything about Cain, we know that he made himself a murderer, 
and that Cain knew that he had done so, and was frightened and 
pained at the heinousness or blackness of his crime in the eye of 
Heaven. And in this sense Satan made himself Satan and would 
not have been Satan otherwise. 

And then, again, as to these Axioms, we have placed them at the 
beginning of the volume, rather than at its close, because they are 
intended as a brief rule by which much that is to follow must be 
measured. And we have printed them in fair sized type, for the 
ease of reading them in such type as compared to the labor of 
reading print of a finer character. 

Again, it may appear paradoxical to the reader that we wander, 
so radically, from the beaten path of theological thought, touching 
moral evil, and attempt to cross the mountains of difficulty into the 
Italy of assurance and rest upon that subject, not by " The Pass of 
St. Bernard " — the conclusion of the divinity doctors, nor by "The 
Simpleton " — the theory of the schools, but by a new, unexplored 
and untrodden route. In fact, to ourself it really seems strange 
that we should be led to conclusions so totally contrary to all our 
theological education, and to all our earlier modes and lines of 
thought on this topic. Indeed, it has been a matter of deep and 
troubled regret, that in canvassing this intricate subject, so many 
distinguished authors have been found opposed to what seems in this 
canvass the only true theory. But being thus opposed to what appears 
to be the truth in the case, they could only be placed in opposition 
to the views advocated herein. And we have frankly given many 
of then names and words so that they can be defended if possible to 
do so. And it will be a real and a thankful relief if their views can 
be shown to be true — shown to be reasonable and scriptural. 



PREFACE. 7 

Hence, the learned world have hereby the earnest invitation, or re- 
quest thrown at their feet to thus help us out of any error into which 
we may have fallen, and to speak for and to defend the doctrines 
of the dead. 

The reputation of those departed and worthy men, however, needs 
no defense — is above reproach — greener than the lam-el. And 
then- giant abilities and their deeds and names, too, will be remem- 
bered with pride, thankfulness and reverence while the sun shines 
over us, or while science and religion have a shrine or a home in 
our land. 

And besides what we have just said, it yet seems eminently fitting 
and proper, here and now, that we openly and frankly apologize 
for the freedom with which we have opposed various leading doc- 
trines, principles and precepts of the Christian world in this volume; 
although it is evident that truth, like God, will plead its own cause 
— will defend itself against all comers, and will even lift its adher- 
ents and advocates to a higher and happier plain, despite all con- 
tumely and reproach. 

But, were this not so, we cannot imagine how any advance could 
be made in morals — how any theory of religious faith could be 
published without colliding, or conflicting with some prior scheme 
of ethics — some previous system of faith. 

As an instance, the reader will notice that in the solution of our 
problem, the subject of natural theology is one of the radical 
thoughts — one of the principal aids or agencies by which we reach 
our conclusions, or rather the crucible in which we attempt to melt 
various theological compounds, and thus separate the truth from a 
showy and long list of fallacies. Hence, the old and carefully cul- 
tivated field of Butler's Analogy (touching natural religioa) lay 
directly in our way. And thus, as all may see, we must either go 
through it or stop the procession at its border — must go through it 
or lay down our pen. But deeming it proper if not demanded that 
the train should move on, we have crossed that field with as little 
damage as the case will admit {i.e., considering the condition and 
the character of our train), while we have felt a respect which bor- 
ders upon reverence for that gifted, useful and honored man of 
God. And the same may be said of several other authors involved 
or thus concerned herein. But in respect to criticisms and opposi- 



6 PREFACE. 

tion of views, as can be easily seen at a glance, all authors on vital 
subjects reside in glass-houses and must expect the compliment of 
criticism, as a certainty, or as a matter of necessity m the case itself. 
Hence every considerate author enters the arena of controversy, as 
the knights of old entered their fields of strife, expecting to try 
lances with the most dexterous, and to measure swords with the 
mightiest of mankind. Again, it is proper to state, just here, that 
some portion of the matter contained in this volume consists of parts 
of twelve sermons, written upon the subjects contemplated in these 
pages; and that instead of publishing those sermons together and 
in full, as was the original intention, portions of them are taken and 
placed with about as much more additional and new matter, so as 
to thus condense and simplify the thoughts for the convenience of 
the reader. But in doing this, as the reader may discover, occa- 
sionally there is a trifle of repetition touching the same idea or fact, 
which idea or fact has of necessity entered into several of the twelve 
sermons, and hence this little repetition has seemed almost unavoid- 
able in this manner of compiling this work. But as this partial re- 
iteration can do no harm to the truths and facts involved, and it 
being very difficult to sift them all out, the publication has been 
allowed to go on with those little repetitions remaining, trusting to 
the good sense and forbearance of the reader for exemption from 
blame for so doing. Also, and finally, several of those sermons 
have been again and again repeated in various parts of the East and 
of the Northwest, so that a portion of these thoughts cannot be en- 
tirely new wherever they originated, while other portions of this 
little book are entirely new, at least to the author, and so far as he 
knows, new in fact. One of those sermons, " The Fall and Rescue 
of Man," was published in 1867. 

And now, anxious for the downfall of error and the spread of 
truth in our land, and wishing for the wellbeing and happiness of 
the readers of this volume, as well as for the spread of light and joy 

in our world, I am, etc., 

THE AUTHOR. 



CONTENTS. 



THEOLOGICAL "BRIEF," 

In Axioms, Queries, and Corollaries, or a few Fundamental Facts in 
Sacred Science, 13 

CHAPTER I. 

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES AND GROUNDS OF BELIEF. 

Difference of Constitution and Modes of Thought — System of 
Error — The Apology for the Work — The Challenge — The 
Author's Wish, 27 

CHAPTER II. 

GROUNDS OF BELIEF. 

The Existence of God a Fact to be Believed, not to be Proven — 
Something must be taken without Proof — The Senses must be 
credited — Berkeley and Fichte — God, according to Nature and 
parts of the Bible, appears severe if not cruel, - - - 35 

CHAPTER III. 

NATURE DENIES THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 

Man naturally believes that God is Good — The Mind will not credit 
Reason when it intimates or says there is no Future — Butler 
places too much Confidence in the Continuance of Nature as it is, 

47 
CHAPTER IV. 

SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE. 

Bishop Bulter's Analogy in Fault — The True Analogy — Nature 
has no Key to a Future State — The Idea of Immortality is In- 
tuitive or God-given — Conscience not a Faculty, but God speak- 
ing to the Soul — No General Rule of Right discoverable by 
Conscience, 65 

CHAPTER V. 

NATURE INTERROGATED. 

The Problem of Pain the Study of the Ages — Plato's Statement — 
It is not the Common but the Extra Ills of Life we dread most — 
The Nobleman and the Orphans — Dire Effects of Poison, Light- 
ning, Fire, etc., upon the Human Family, - - - 81 



10 CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE INTERROGATION OF NATURE. 

(continued.) 

The Further Reading of Nature's Book — It gives a False and very 
Unworthy Idfea of God — Law is not the workman, but the Rule 
by which the Workman Works — Three of the Laws in Nature 
have a War and produce Pain and Death — They snap their 
Fingers in the Face of Courts and laugh at Prison Bars — Thomas 
Paine and Bolinbroke's Bible — John N. Maffit's Statement — 
Man's Body and Mind both badly Out of Order — Description of 
a Battle, 92 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE BIBLE AS A HISTORY AND A LIGHT. 

Reliability of General History — The Bible as a History — Its Re- 
Hability and Evident Honesty — Nature cannot account for its 
own Contentions — Birds, Worms and Insects Fight — The 
Broken Watch and the Smitten Forest — Some of the Animals 
seem to be made to tear, kill and destroy, ... 105 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE BIBLE AS A LIGHT AND A GUIDE. 

Nature Fails to Explain either Man or his Surroundings — The King 
of Siam and the Freezing of Water — The Infidel convinced and 
converted, ----------- 115 

CHAPTER IX. 

INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 

The Bible, an Inspired Book, if it is a Reliable History — The Dying 
Charge of Moses Prophetic — The Jew is a Present Proof of the 
Inspiration of the Bible, 123 

CHAPTER X. 

THE CHARACTER OF THE BIBLE AS A BOOK. 

It is a Leader and a Lamp — Argument is not what the Infidel 
needs — The Savior used and accepted the Old Testament as 
God's Inspired Word — The Earth is a Witness to the Truth of 
the Bible History — The Composition of the Bible Language — 
Rousseau's Praise of the Scriptures — Thomas Jefferson reading 
his Bible, 133 

CHAPTER XL 

THE BIBLE OUR ULTIMATE ARBITER. 

The Return to the Sacred Record — The Men who must Know the 
Why of Everything — Question of Depravity and Consequent 
Sorrow — Every Man who is not an Atheist Interested in the 
Question — Voltaire's Shocking Picture of Men and Human 
Life — Nature does not Proclaim a Moral Government, - 145 



CONTENTS. 11 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE CAUSE AND THE BOUNDARY OP GUILT. 

Men not Born under the Guilt of Adam's Sin — Origin, Calvin. 
Wesley, etc. — Dr. Shedd's and Dr. Hodge's Theory —Dr. Ray- 
mond's Theory — All based alike on Divine Sovereignty — Thomas 
Paine's Prophecy as to the Bible — The Five Points Made — But 
for Christ there would have been no Cain and Abel — (The First 
Stake) — We would choose to Live, although we must Live in 
this Sorrowing World, 155 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CAUSE AND OBJECT OF TEMPORAL DEATH. 

Temporal Death not a Penalty of Sin — Not in the Threat to Adam — 
Adam and Eve would not have Died, Temporally, but for the 
Attonement — (The Second Stake) — The Facts of Geology — A 
Supposition as to Inhabitants on the Earth before Adam — The 
Terror of Death tends to keep men from taking their own lives — 
The Bodies of Men raised if the Bible be True, - - 168 

CHAPTER XIV. 

REDEMPTION AND ITS RESULTS IN RESPECT TO MORAL EVIL. 

The Propriety of Making Moral Beings — The Changes God Made 
in the Earth to fit it for Fallen Adam — " Moral Evil " — [The 
Third Stake) — All Three Grow out of the Plan of Redemption — 
Where the Lights of Infidelity go out — No Part of the Penalty 
for Adam's Sin has Reached the Posterity, nor any Imputation 
of that Sin — Adam and Eve not Exposed to Eternal Death 
until Redeemed by Christ, - - - - - 183 

CHAPTER XV. 

SOURCES AND EFFECTS OF DEPRAVITY. 

The Death threatened Adam was Spiritual Death — Children are 
Born Depraved — The Depravation not to be attributed to their 
Birth as stated by Wesley and Calvin — Comes to us by the 
Arrangement of God Himself — We wait like the Child look- 
ing for its Father to Come and take it Home — The Creator 
goes out into the Night of Sin that we may Exist — A. Full 
Recovery of Man here Impossible, 198 

CHAPTER XVI. 

MORAL AGENCY AND IMMORTALITY OF MAN. 

Why God placed Adam in the condition of an Agent — The Cause 
not in Man but in God — Whatever God did was Considerately 
and Wisely done — The Testimony for the Present Life and the 
Testimony for a Future Life alike positive — It would be Miracu- 
lous if there is no Future State — Men may have Light if they 
wish it — The Buddhist Decalogue, .... 218 

CHAPTER XVII. 

I. The System of Development not a Key to the Problem of Pain 

• — The Divine Presence a Key — II. Back Door of Christianity — 

III. The Unity and Omnipresence of God — IV. Conscience and 

Right — V. The Universal Father or the Existence of God — 

VI. Moral Scales — Origin of Evil — Faith and Intuition, 231 



A THEOLOGICAL "BRIEF" 



AXIOMS, QUERIES AND COROLLARIES, OR A FEW FUND- 
AMENTAL FACTS IN SACRED SCIENCE. 



1. We exist. 

2. In our mental and moral natures, we are differ- 
ent and distinct from the material world. 

3. This material system around us is not our work, 
and does not exist by our agency or supervision, nor 
by that of any human power. 

■1. We did not originate ourselves. 

5. We are something: i.e., we have a real existence. 

6. Nothing could never produce something, there- 
fore something existed before us. 

7. Whatever exists, or has existed, did not create 
itself; i.e., every creature implies a Creator; in other 
words, " every effect must have a cause," Hume to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 

8. Every effect must have an adequate cause, other- 
wise a portion of the effect would be uncaused, which 
is a contradiction. 



14: THEOLOGICAL 

9. All that exists cannot be effect, i.e., cannot be a 
caused cause; hence something is uncaused and in- 
dependent of all causes. 

10. Whatever is uncaused and independant of all 
causes must be eternal. And whatever is eternal 
must ever be the same, i.e., unchangeable. 

11. This organized system of nature is made up of 
parts, each of which is subject to change — each of 
which had a beginning; and, inasmuch as each part of 
this system had ■ a beginning, the whole system must 
have had a beginning, hence this system of nature 
was not from eternity. 

12. If matter is eternal as to its substance, still, in- 
asmuch as its present organization is not eternal, and 
inasmuch as it could not organize itself, hence, there 
must have been an organizer, which is distinct from 
and superior to matter. 

13. Whatever instituted and made this system was 
before it and superior to it ; hence he is not the system 
itself; otherwise he made himself, which is absurd, as 
well as impossible. That is, impossible from the very 
nature of things, and absurd from the fact that the 
scheme of the physical world seems to be a scheme 
for carrying on, if not of perpetuating, a system of 
endless variety; or a scheme of variety, by a system 
of perpetual change. Hence, the great theater of 
nature to-day is different, in many important respects 
from nature one year since, or in any year or age in 
all the long eras of the past. Therefore, if behind 
nature there is no changeless and operating entity, 



THEOLOGICAL " BRIEF." 15 

then we have creations without a creator, and change 
without a changer, which is doubly absurd. 

14. The intelligent and thinking part of ourselves 
is not matter; else the distinctions between mind and 
matter are mere fancy, and we shall need to go back 
and reconstruct our language and give new definitions 
to our words. 

15. If matter can think or move itself by its own 
ability, and according to its own volitions, under any 
possible circumstances, then we do not know what 
the laws or properties of matter are — do not know 
what the properties or laws of either mind or matter 
may be; nor what the words mean which we use in 
relation to them. 

16. If there is but one God, and if he is just and 
good, then man was created upright and happy. 

17. If man was created upright and happy, and is 
now, evidently, neither upright nor happy, then man 
has fallen from his primeval state — has, in some way, 
lost that character of uprightness and that condition 
of happiness in which he was created. And if this 
loss did not occur in the manner and at the time in 
which sacred history affirms that it occurred, then we 
have no knowledge of the occasion, nor of the time of 
its occurrence. 

18. If we attempt to ascertain the character of the 
Creator by his doings or by his works alone, then 
nothing which is uncertain, unseen, or unknown, 
should be adduced as a proof of his justice or good- 
ness. Hence, no merely supposed future rewards for 



16 THEOLOGICAL " BRIEF." 

present pain can be taken as proof that this pain is 
permitted by justice, and will result in good to us 
here, or will be rewarded with joy and rejoicing here- 
after. In other words, this supposition of future re- 
ward cannot be taken as proof for either the goodness 
or justice of the Creator. 

19. If the Creator is just and good, and if man as 
man, and everywhere, has now, and always has had 
the idea and the assurance that the Creator is thus 
just and good; and if nature does not declare the 
justice and goodness of God (if in fact it declares 
otherwise), then man as man surely has now, and 
always has had, some other and better instructor than 
nature alone can possibly be; and an instructor, too, 
more general and present than any Bible, or written 
law, or instructions can be. Again, if the Creator is 
not just and good, as the human mind thus instinct- 
ively or intuitively declares, then man by nature and of 
necessity is the prey and the bond slave of falsehood, 
and the very foundation or root of his nature is a lie. 

20. A Creator naturally implies creatures or crea- 
tion; and creation implies ownership or possession; 
and ownership implies control, or the right to use and 
govern; and government implies law, and law implies 
penalty, and penalty implies pain or privation; i. e., 
implies suffering of some sort. Hence, a Creator 
without creatures, a governor without subjects, and 
government without law, and law without penalty, 
and penalty without pain or suffering, are misno- 
mers — are contradictions, if not impossibilities. 



THEOLOGICAL " BRIEF." 17 

Therefore, it seems that even infinite wisdom could 
not contrive free intelligences, or intelligences with 
power to choose for themselves, who would not he 
capable of suffering, or subject to the privations and 
penalties of law. Thus we appear to be pushed at 
last to the conclusion, that although suffering now 
seems the enigma of creation — seems a dark spot on 
the sun of human life; or a fearful frown on the face 
of goodness itself; yet, to he human, ever was, now 
is, and ever must be not only to be capable of pain 
and sorrow, but conditionally subject thereto, al- 
though not necessarily afflicted therewith. 

21. If in every human soul there is generally a 
feeling of weakness and dependence, with an oppress- 
ive sense of ill-desert or guilt; and if thereby the 
need of an intercessor or "day's man " is easily and 
readily intimated to the human mind; and if being 
thus intimated or suggested to the sorrowing heart, 
Christ is laid hold of, at various times, as a drowning 
man catches at whatever comes in his way, until an 
acquaintance is formed between the soul and its Sav- 
ior, then why may not some men who have no Bible, 
still know so much of the Redeemer of the race, 
as truly to believe in him?* Again, if God the 
Father evidently manifests himself to the human 
soul in a plain and in an understandable manner, then 
why may not God the Son also communicate to such 
as seek him, so much of his relations to the race, as 
its redeemer, as that all attentive and careful "minds 

* See Back Door to Christianity, ch. 17, sec. 2. 
2 



18 THEOLOGICAL " BRIEF." 

shall at once discover that he (under whatever name) 
is their refuge from this power of sin and from the 
plague and the pain of guilt? 

22. If the query is raised, whether the atonement 
was made through mental, or through physical suffer- 
ing; that is, whether it was made by the Savior's 
physical death, or by his great mental agony, caused 
by the hiding of his Father's face, while he took the 
culprit's place on the cross; the answer seems to be, 
that it was by his suffering before he died, and while 
he was yet able to testify to its completion by crying 
" with a loud voice, It is finished; " * i. e. y if it was 
not pain, nor physical derangement that brought on 
his death (which seemed to be the opinion of the sol- 
diers who came to break his legs) ; and if when death 
touched him, all suffering must have been over at 
once; and if, also, he laid down his life, himself, as 
he said he would do, then for him to die was his re- 
lease from the sufferings of the atonement, rather 
than as so much additional and meritorious suffering 
for the race. Yet, to fulfill a long list of pnyphecy, 
and in view of the resurrection of men, as well as to 
take the chill and the gloom out of the grave, it 
seems fitting indeed, if not absolutely necessary to 
the quiet and faith of his followers, that Christ should 
die a physical death, and be laid in the tomb of the 
wealthy Joseph of Arimathea. For, in this way 
only, it seems, could he sweeten the grave for his 
saints; while it also proved true, that "He made his 
* Fall and Rescue, page 25. 



THEOLOGICAL " BRIEF." 19 

grave with tlie wicked and with the rich in his death," 
as Isaiah, centuries beforehand, declared he would do. 
Isa. 53: 9. 

23. If the Creator was sincere when He command- 
ed Adam not to eat of the interdicted tree; and if 
Adam would not have fallen except by eating of that 
tree, then the Creator did not wish Adam to fall, but 
wished him to maintain and enjoy his then peaceful 
and privileged position. * And if the Creator was 
not sincere in this command — if He is not always 
sincere in what He commands, threatens and prom- 
ises ns as men, then we certainly have no idea of his 
character, and have no index to his will or intentions, 
either concerning us or our world, nor any reasona- 
ble hope either for time or for eternity. 

24. If, evidently, the Creator did not wish Adam 
to fall, and if our present redeemed state, taken as a 
whole, is better than Adam's original state taken as 
a whole, then God did not wish ns to have as good a 
state as we now enjoy. And if He did not wish ns to 
have as good a state as we now enjoy, then it would 
seem that through the aid of sin we have made a gain, 
even against the Creator, which is an idea utterly 
unworthy of a moment's entertainment in a thought- 
ful mind. Therefore, our present state is not better 
than Adam's state before his sin. f 

25. If, plainly, our present state, taken as a whole, 
cannot be better than Adam's original state, taken as 
a whole, then we may naturally inquire whether our 

* Fall and Rescue, page 23. f Fall and Rescue, page 23. 



20 THEOLOGICAL " BRIEF." 

present state is worse than that of Adam's original 
state? Which may be a very hard question for ns to 
answer. But evidently if it is worse than it need be, 
considering that we must be the children of a fallen 
father, and hence depraved, then it would seem that 
the Creator either was not able, or else was not willing 
to balance the scales with us in the transaction; i. <?., 
not able, or else not willing to make up to us in some 
way, through the atonement of Christ, what we lose 
in another way through the sin of Adam. But, if 
our Creator is either unable or unwilling in these re- 
spects, then the Scriptures are no plain guide to our 
steps, and the common intuitions and beliefs of the 
soul are false. And if this be so, then the deepest 
darkness of midnight is light itself compared to our 
darkness. 

26. If the query is raised (as it often is) whether 
God could, in justice, create a being to whom exist- 
ence might prove a curse, the query (as to men) would 
simply apply to Adam and Eve, and not to their pos- 
terity, for the reason that no individual of their pos- 
terity has been, or can be the subject of a direct cre- 
ation, each of them being obliged to take life as 
handed down to them by their parents, or through a 
a power committed to the primeval pair, in trust for 
the generations which might follow them in the race 
of life. And if it is asked why it was arranged that 
the earth should be peopled by the present method, 
rather than by individual creations, the question may 
be met by another query, i. e., Why angels instead of 



21 

men were not placed upon the earth to occupy and 
enjoy it? But, both these questions having reference 
to things which are infinitely above the comprehen- 
sion of poor mortals, must be returned unanswered, 
if, in fact, they are not unanswerable by any being, 
save by God himself. True, the present arrangement 
may have reference in part to the family, and through 
the family to the state, and still more to something 
entirely out of sight, perhaps. However this may be, 
only let it be admitted that it was just and proper that 
moral beings should be made, and that these moral 
beings should have the power to make their existence 
truly happy or extremely miserable, as they might 
choose for themselves; and it will appear that the 
question, whether existence shall be a blessing or a 
curse, is a question which each man is to answer by 
the life he lives — by the choices he may make. In- 
deed, if we think a moment, we shall discover that 
this query involves many other questions, and among 
them the question whether existence to Satan himself 
shall prove a blessing or a curse; that is, better than 
nonexistence, which surely requires a deeper insight 
into the mysteries of spiritual existence than w T e, as 
men, can possibly possess. 

27. If, evidently, God is not always accountable for 
the lesser kinds and degrees of privation, pain and 
anguish which fall upon men here, then why should 
He be thought accountable for any type of sorroio 
which, in the workings of law, may justly reach them 
hereafter? Indeed, has not the main difficulty, in our 



9,9. 



minds, in respect to the eternal or continued sorrow 
of any soul in the after state, originated in the vague 
notion that such a retribution is more than the case 
merits — is undue penalty, and hence unjust? As 
though we can easily tell what is and what is not due 
to crime against heaven. But if the Creator has the 
right to punish the criminals in his empire, and also 
the right to choose the time this punishment shall 
continue; i. e., whether that time shall be limited or 
eternal (while the degree of the punishment is ad- 
justed to the time), then, until it is proven that the 
Creator would be unjust in taking so much time to 
administer a proper degree of punishment to high- 
handed crime against his law, the argument as to time 
is worthless. And especially so if, like a dead branch 
fallen to the earth, the wrecked soul is so sundered 
from, and so judicially abandoned by the great source 
of spiritual life and preservation as to be a hopeless 
and perpetual ruin. Again, if the Creator is not re- 
sponsible for the use his creatures may make of the 
talents wisely committed to their trust, then He may 
consent that certain men may come into existence 
under and according to the law of propagation, who, 
by their utter folly, i. e., by their continued and base 
abuse of the powers granted them, shall come to a 
retribution which shall make it true of each of them 
that " It had been good for that man if he had not 
been born." Matt., 26: 24. 

28. It was, certainly, either right or wrong for the 
Creator to allow man to exist, as he now exists; i. e., 



THEOLOGICAL " BKIEF." 23 

in the condition and subject to the laws and penalties 
which are the burden of revelation — right or wrong- 
to so fit, endow and load him, with, in and for his 
work as that his life must be, in part at least, one of 
toil, weariness and weeping as a consequence of sin. 
And firsts if it was right, then we have no occasion to 
fear, tremble, or complain, at the results or conse- 
quences which may follow or grow out of this condi- 
tion of things — have no reason for astonishment if a 
dreadful retribution awaits guilt in the after world; 
nor the least cause to censure the Creator for ordain- 
ing such a retribution for reckless impenitency or 
guilty unbelief. And secondly, if it was wrong for 
the Creator to so place us, then we are shut up to 
dispair. For, we have no redress, nor the least hope 
of redress, either here, or in the long hereafter, for 
these woes which we are suffering, or which we may 
yet suffer; i. <?., have absolutely nothing to hope; but 
all, or everything to fear, from such a condition of 
affairs. But, just here, we should bear in mind that 
the plea generally made against severe and perpetual 
punishment is based upon the presumption or as- 
sumed belief, that God is eminently just; and hence, 
that the pains and penalties of his government, though 
needful and prompt, are still so mild or brief in the 
severest cases, that, to the subjects of these penalties, 
being is still a blessing. But it seems that this belief, 
though easily declared, is not so easily proven; if, in 
fact, it is not entirely without proof. 

29. If all created intelligences enter upon and are 



24 THEOLOGICAL " BRIEF." 

kept in existence by and through the workings of cer- 
tain high and divine, jet general laws, and not by the 
continuous and personal aid and upholding of the 
Creator; then if, in the long line of such intelligences, 
there may chance to be a creature to whom existence 
has become a curse; or a creature to whom, in conse- 
quence of his crimes, being has ceased to be a bless- 
ing, we could neither blame the Creator for this 
condition of his creature, nor expect the interference 
of His hand to change these general laws, nor to re- 
lieve His subject from disability under them. Again, 
if for the security or safety of the innocent and the 
good of a nation, as well as for the life and prosperity 
of that nation, the crimes against just law must be 
punished; and if those condemned and imprisoned for 
high crimes, under those laws, are examples and 
warnings to others — are a standing memorial of jus- 
tice and the ultimate ends of law (although their lives 
are wretched indeed, and not worth the living), then 
why may not great criminals under any government, 
in this or in any world, be "kept in chains" and 
gloomy confinement for years — ages — forever; al- 
though to them, personally, being is not a blessing, 
but a curse? 

30. If we can .now clearly and readily see that to us, 
but for the key of human apostacy and our own moral 
condition as men, the character of the Creator, as 
viewed through His works, would appear at a great 
disadvantage; and if but for this key, human life and 
human allotments would seem a labyrinth of sighing 



THEOLOGICAL "BRIEF. ZO 

and sorrowful contradictions; or of unexplainable and 
long mazes of mischief and of misery; and if, with 
this key all is comparatively easy, happy and trustful, 
then, we may easily conceive and confidently believe 
that to the initial act, or the origin of evil, in the 
great realm of the Creator, which now seems so sus- 
picious and misty to our view, there is also a key, or 
reasonable cause, which in like manner fully exoner- 
ates our divine Creator from blame of any kind in 
that transaction, and leaves His throne as pure and 
spotless as light itself.* And w T e may hence believe 
too, that in any and every case of obscurity or doubt, 
in respect to the Creator's doings to and toward his 
creatures, a hidden and justifiable cause exists, and 
will be eventually revealed clearly to our view. 
Hence, we can see that the Savior might now say to 
us, in respect to these, His acts, as He once said to 
Peter, in respect to washing his feet: "What I do, 
thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know here- 
after."— John, 13: 7. 

" Too curious man! Why dost thou seek to know 
Events, which, good or ill, foreknown, are woe? 
Th' all-seeing power, that made thee mortal, gave 
Thee everything a mortal state should have." 

— Dryden. 
*See sec. 6, ch. 17. 



THE PKOBLEM OF EYIL. 



CHAPTER I. 

STATEMENT OF PRINCIPLES AND GROUNDS OF BELIEF. 

Difference of Constitution and Modes of Thought — Systems of 
Error — The Apology for the Work — The Challenge — The 
Author's Wish. 

The great mystery of disorder and' sorrow (or the 
" Problem of Evil," as it is called), ist, as it relates to 
us and to our world ; and 2d, as it relates to the com- 
mencement, or origin of evil in the great realm of the 
great Creator, is universally acknowledged to be a 
knotty and a vexed problem. And a problem, too, 
which has a wide range, as compared with human 
capabilities; and yet, of vast interest to man, as man, 
and especially to each individual man, touching the 
relations of the Creator, to the discords of earth, or 
to the woe and the weeping of time. 

And, although many worthy and interesting volumes 
have been written upon this problem, yet, opposite 
and conflicting opinions respecting it have been enter- 
tained and promulgated in every age, for a long term 
of time, and are so entertained and promulgated 
to-day. 



2S THE PKOBLEM OF EVIL ; 

And tliere seem to be two prominent reasons why 
this problem is so difficult of solution and why such 
opposite opinions concerning it and its answer have 
been entertained. One (which is by far the greater) 
is the exceeding weakness of the human mind, as 
compared to the work proposed to be done; and the 
other the poverty and ambiguity of any and all human 
language as a medium of communication. 

Men mistake, or misunderstand each other's terms ; 
or the meaning they severally attach to the words 
they use. Hence, when in fact they are nearly one 
in the spirit and principle of their ideas, they often 
have with each other a long war of words. And, al- 
though man, as an afflicted, dependent, and naturally 
religious being, has a tendency to contemplate moral 
subjects — has a taste, as well as a demand for re- 
ligious thought; and although this has been so in every 
age and in every clime of earth; been so in every 
grade, clan, or tribe of mankind through all of human 
history, v yet, in no age, and to no large or general 
extent has this thought been the same — been in per- 
fect and happy harmony. In other words, divisions 
have been common, and often the widest extremes of 
thought and principle have met in sharp encounter. 

The four renowned schools of ancient Greece (sunny, 
cultured Greece, as it was called) are samples in 
this respect, and show the manner in which the phases 
of religious belief have varied among the followers of 
different leaders and teachers. 

Agreeing in a few great or general principles, but 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 29 

divided and opposed in many others, Plato dissented 
to some of the teachings of Zeno, as well as to those 
of Aristotle and Epicurus, and they in turn disagreed 
with Plato and with each other. 

Thus it is to-day; private creeds are legion and con- 
tentions common. Now, whether this is so because 
the human mind would entirely stagnate if not roused 
by some question of difference, and hence, was so con- 
stituted as to naturally disagree, or whether it is so by 
some terrible derangement in both the reasoning and 
moral powers of man, will naturally appear as we pro- 
secute our search for the cause, and look into the con- 
sequences of moral evil. Put, to proceed cautiously, 
as well as safely and firmly, it will be needful to pre- 
face our main argument, by a careful contemplation 
of the sources and reliability of human knowledge, 
and also to examine, critically, the character and cred- 
ibility of the testimony we must use and rely upon, in 
deciding the questions in debate. 

And in doing this, we find that finite and weak as 
the human mind is, still it has its sphere of knowl- 
edge, or field of toil and improvement. And that in 
this field, duty calls it to labor, grow and be happy. 

But inasmuch as all finite thinking is liable to be 
only in part — only scanty and superficial indeed — 
inasmuch as it is liable to contain items of error and 
to rest upon false views and inductions ; therefore, all 
human reasoning is to be held as only approximate at 
best, and to be watched at all times with a steady and 
a vigilant eye. 



30 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

Yet notwithstanding all this — notwithstanding the 
fact that blindness and error are common to the hu- 
man understanding, and will and must cloud and 
color all finite thought, more or less, still after all 
this, we are obliged to trust and depend upon the de- 
cisions and deductions of reason — obliged to credit 
and act upon the plain convictions of our minds. And 
every mind should feel that the power to reason has 
not been committed to it for naught; should feel that 
to be rational is to be responsible, or accountable and 
rewardable. And whether we follow our own opinions 
or those of others, we can but choose to do what we 
do. Hence, to be idle, or to act rashly — to be indif- 
ferent or to be impelled by a blind zeal, does not be- 
come our surroundings or our interests. 

Again, to presume or to claim that others are 
wrong, simply because their opinions differ from our 
opinions, betrays a weakness and shows a want of 
proper culture and research. And to claim that we 
are right, simply because we say so or without some 
plain proof that we are so, is vain and inconsiderate 
indeed. Again, whatever is above or beyond positive 
proof need not, should not, be stated dogmatically; 
but should be left, together with the best testimony 
in its favor, to the considerate judgment of all reason- 
ing or thinking men. And, inasmuch as men greatly 
differ in mental and moral endowments — differ in 
the particular texture, activity and susceptibilities of 
their intellectual and moral powers, it is not wonder- 
ful that there is a great diversity of opinion in rela- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 31 

tion to the intricate and half hidden subjects of hu- 
man thought. 

And then the books men have read, the company 
they have kept, the precepts they have heard, and the 
opinions they have adopted, all being different, tend 
to make them differ even if they are naturally quite 
alike otherwise. 

And, if it appears plain to us that the character of 
our education and modes of thought have had a vast 
influence in leading us to the adoption of many of 
our most settled views and opinions on moral subjects ; 
then we should therein find a reason for charity toward 
those differently surrounded, and perhaps erroneously 
educated — should find occasion for profound grati- 
tude in the conviction that more and better light has 
fallen to our lot than has fallen to the lot of our 
friends or neighbors. And hence we shall be pre- 
pared to listen with respect to their statements, opin- 
ions and theories, although w r e may believe them to 
be mistaken in many respects. 

Again, some men have a natural aversion to close 
thought on moral subjects, and hence are not critics 
upon these topics. Others are averse to careful and 
close thought on any subject, and hence are often 
deceived, often misled. They think, but not close- 
ly nor accurately. And to all of us who pretend 
to scan closely the system of nature, who w T ould 
scorn the name of superficial, the following couplet 
may nevertheless have an application as well as a 
lesson: 



32 

" How few there are who think aright, among the thinking few, 
How many never think at all, but only think they do." 

But, while it is true that some old theories may 
coutain vital errors, and, hence, need to be replanned 
and rewritten, still they are a thousand times better 
and safer than any new theory, which has surmise for 
a foundation, and fancy for a finish. And inasmuch 
as, in the present age (at least in our nation), errors 
and fancies seem to multiply and Haunt themselves 
like dandelions in the spring time, and yet have the 
effrontery to demand our belief, as though they really 
bore the stamp of accredited and unquestionable truth; 
therefore, the friends of truth must be bold and out- 
spoken indeed; must not fear to contend earnestly for 
the right; " for the faith once delivered to the saints." 
And now, that we have said thus much to open the 
way, if not to apologize for the appearance of this 
humble volume, and also for the manner in which we 
deal with the subjects contemplated herein, by leav- 
ing the Bible out of the argument, for a time at least, 
the reader need not be startled at our careless dash at 
old and revered theories; or our unceremonious thrust 
at the fallacies found in old and established systems of 
belief. Neither need he be seriously alarmed if we 
fly the common track of argument, and run a " wild 
train " across the continent of thought: 

I. In respect to the manner in which we gain our 
earlier and general knowledge of God. 

II. As to the source from whence man obtains 
the idea and the proof that the soul is immortal. 



OR, THEORY AND TPTEOLOGT. 33 

III. As to the character of Conscience, and also 
what it is to us in relation to all the moral rules or 
precepts of life. 

IY. In respect to the reason why man begins life 
with a sigh, and ends it with a groan, while he has 
not the least direction or responsibility, in relation to 
the first, nor necessarily been the occasion, or cause 
of the second. In other words, it is proposed to show 
that man is "born to trouble as the sparks fly up- 
ward," and that human life is naturally and necessa- 
rily a scene of conflict and care, by the direct will and 
considerate arrangement of God himself. 

These announcements may startle some and wake 
up the combativeness of others, and call out the cold 
scorn and contempt of still others; but whichever it 
may be is not the concern, or rather the anxiety of 
the writer hereof, although, he earnestly desires the 
forbearance and kind wishes of all his fellow men. 

If the ground taken is not tenable, or if the proof 
of positions assumed is not clear and convincing, then 
the faith of the reader is not due — is not expected. 
But, if the proof is clear and full, then belief is chal- 
lenged — claimed. 

And whoever has not the nerve needed for a bloody 
dissecting shop, nor a taste for political theology — 
whoever is timid and awe-stricken when some cher- 
ished notion is assailed, and when old opinions are 
controverted, let him lay down this little volume at 
once — let him stop reading just where he is, for to 
wound and disturb is not our wish — is not our inten- 
3 



34: THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

tion in these pages. But whoever is looking after the 
pillars on which the temple of truth stands — who- 
ever is ready to drive across the plain of human 
knowledge and human thought, in any direction 
which the case admits or demands, toward (and to) 
the beautiful citadel of abiding truth and of calm, 
unwavering trust, without regard to former paths, 
tracks or guide boards, let him read on; dissenting if 
he must, to the opinions advanced, and contradicting 
and controverting them if he can. A fair weight of 
proof in an even balance is all that is asked, and this 
the case certainly merits from all minds or intelli- 
gences concerned. Hence, while we say again " that 
it is not wisdom to assume that we are always right 
and our opponents always wrong," and while we 
firmly adhere to, and fearlessly advocate the opinions 
which we have adopted, we will keep an open ear to 
what is said, or to the proofs proffered by those who 
hold contrary opinions. But, beside and above all, let 
us cultivate and maintain the sweet spirit of charity 
toward all honest hearts — toward every man, woman 
and child who really desires to know the truth, and 
who aims to love our Lord Jesus Christ. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 35 



CHAPTER II. 

GROUNDS OF BELIEF. 

The Existence of God a Fact to be Believed, not to be Proven — 
Something must be taken without Proof — The Senses must 
be credited — Berkeley and Fichte — God, according to Nature 
and parts of the Bible, appears severe if not cruel. 

It is often said that the existence of God is a fact 
to be believed, not to be proven. As much as to say, 
we are incapable of proving his existence.* Which is 
true in a certain critical or metaphysical sense, no 
doubt, and yet we cannot well avoid believing in the 
existence of a Creator under any circumstances what- 
ever, and especially while the wonders of nature are 
considered and understood. But inasmuch as we ob- 
serve and learn of the works of nature by our senses, 
it is evident that these must be considered faithful to 
us, or else our conclusions in respect to a Creator 
drawn from the works of nature, cannot be relied up- 
on. In other words, certain truths must be taken 
without proof — taken as self-evident and funda- 
mental to all truth, otherwise all reasoning is at an 
end. For instance, suppose we deny the testimony of 
our senses, such as sight, hearing and feeling, akin to 
the manner of Berkeley, Fichte, and others of their 
school. Then what we call nature will be an appear- 
* See Axioms, 12. 



36 

ance; but not necessarily what it seems to us to be. 
Thus a bird, a mote or a man may appear to be what 
we call them; but if we cannot rely upon the testi- 
mony of our senses, then for aught we know the bird, 
the mote and the man may be quite different, if not 
just the contrary of what we judge or suppose them 
to be. Therefore in this view of things, the works of 
nature might or might not indicate a Creator, and 
hence, we could not reason up from the creature to 
the Creator in any direct or positive sense. In fact, 
Des Cartes needed standing room for his argument, 
as much as Archimedes wanted a support to his lever. 
And hence, unless certain facts are taken without 
proof, the temple of reason is forever closed to the 
human mind, and all proof is out of the question. 
But admitting the reliability of our senses, we have a 
basis upon which to stand — have an open door into 
the theatre of reason and logic, and can make conclu- 
sions and reasonably rely upon them. But whoever 
will not admit this — whoever refuses to take the tes- 
timony of his senses, in a general way at least, is 
neither in a condition to reason himself, nor to be 
reasoned with; hence, he may as well step out of " the 
ring" at once. In other words, the person who can- 
not trust the sight of his eyes, under ordinary circum- 
stances, must be out of the reach of logic and beyond 
the influences and lights of testimony. And certainly 
these pages are not for this class of men. True, we 
might follow them back into the thin air of their 
ideal or fancied world — their atmosphere of negation 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 37 

and speculation, as Sir Wm. Hamilton has done; but 
we have neither the time, patience nor inclination to 
do so here and now. And if we had, the general 
reader would find little pleasure and less profit in pe- 
rusing the meager sketch we must of necessity give 
in this connection. And, as to convincing an idealist 
that something is real, we despair of doing it; that is, 
we have no faith in the experiment and no expectation 
that even if we should succeed, such airy and dreamy 
brains could be of much account after all. True, they 
may have their sphere or field of thought, and in it 
may please and profit themselves; and if so, and if 
they will not obtrude their foolish and fanciful notions 
upon the sober and common sense thought of the age, 
the war dogs may stay in their kennels, and the flag 
of peace may continue to wave its graceful and beau- 
tiful folds. 

After all, it is worth the time it will take for such 
persons to ask themselves this question, viz: If what 
seems real to the eye and ear, in a careful examination 
of things and events, is yet by the reason declared 
unreal, or largely so; and if the reason is dependent 
upon these same senses for the facts upon which it 
must decide these very questions, then the decisions 
are as likely to be false as the testimony of the senses 
itself. 

Hence, this whole system of doubt in respect to 
the testimony of the senses is self -destroying or sui- 
cidal to the last degree — is a great farce — a bold 
supposition without foundation either in fact or in 



38 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL ; 

reason. In other words, it is a thing that can never 
be established by any amount of testimony, or by any 
other method within the reach of the human mind. 
Indeed, who but a crazy man would think of measur- 
ing his city lot by an imaginary square, or his field 
by a chain known to be in every respect defective and 
unreliable ? Therefore, the folly of this system is born 
in it — is printed on its very forehead, and exhibited 
in every lineament of its features. And hence, ac- 
cording to it, logic is a mere fancy; faith a cheat; 
reason a dream; and trust a delusion. And experi- 
ence seems to prove that all who embrace it are soon 
chilled, withered and dwarfed in soul, and thus be- 
come wretched and weary wanderers on the theater of 
time. 

Therefore, we must either go back to faith in our 
senses — must go back to the foundations and funda- 
mentals of human belief, or throw away all claim to 
knowledge — must admit the axioms of thought and 
the common intuitions of the soul, or fly from and 
abandon the field of reason forever. 

In other words, if, in the daily transactions of life, 
i. e., in the common converse and communings of man 
with man, as well as in the study of physical nature, 
the testimony of the senses must be credited and re- 
lied upon readily, fully and implicitly; so, in the 
study of mind and morals, these senses must be con- 
sulted, believed and trusted. Otherwise, reason is 
but a name; thought but a shadow, and belief but a 
phantom — a weak and thin whim of the soul. Hence, 



39 

it would seem that even delusion itself must soon dis- 
cover that to really know that we donH knowsaiy- 
thing at all, is to know one thing; which would be 
to know and not to know at the same time, which is 
impossible. Therefore, as we have said, this ideal 
theory — this know-nothing notion — carries its own 
refutation upon its face, and leaves us the choice be- 
tween blank folly and the full and ready belief in the 
testimony of the senses. 

Then let it be fairly understood that we are to 
credit the testimony of the outward organs of the 
mind, and to listen to the plain and deep intuitions 
of the soul, or become public laughing stocks on the 
highways of time, and the scorn of good sense at the 
tribunal of reason. 

Let it be settled, now and forever, that nature is 
not a mocker nor the human soul a lie — that the na- 
tive instincts and helps of the mind, if listened to, 
would lead upward through the shadows of time (and 
the things which are seen), to the happy shores of 
the promised land of light, to the home and to the 
rest of the soul. 

And although we need not insist that men shall 
read and credit the " Book of Books " (the Bible), or 
even that they shall believe in a personal and power- 
ful Creator to obtain and to hold a place in our kind 
regards; yet to merit a place in the arena of con- 
troversy, or a seat in the temple of reason, they must 
at least credit and be governed by the rules and laws 
of logic and the common principles of evidence and 



4:0 THE PEOBLEM OF EVIL ; 

belief. And this is done, can be done without stop- 
ping to investigate the metaphysical relations of 
matter to mind, or the exact manner in which we gain 
our ideas of men and things generally. And therefore 
we need not waste our time over the thin, flimsy and 
infidel speculations of would-be wise men, nor the 
vain prattle of scoffers and skeptics. 

It is enough if we can say that our senses and our 
reason testify to the reality of things around us, and 
that also through the works of God and the intuitions 
of the soul, we gain a clue to the mysteries of pro- 
bation and also to our relations to the great Creator 
and to the untried realms of spiritual existence beyond 
the cold and black shadows of death. 

And that we do thus gain an idea of a future state, 
thus gain the assurance that God is God and that 
death is not the end of us, seems too plain to require 
an extended proof or to admit of an honest denial. 

For the idea that we are to live when death re- 
moves us from the present state seems common to the 
human mind — seems native to the human soul. If 
it is not so, how shall we account for the prevalance of 
this idea in every inhabited island of the sea — on 
every continent, in every country and in every king- 
dom of the round world ? What, but some teaching 
spirit — some tell-tale angel could have thus whisp- 
ered aloud to man everywhere, and through all time 
these happy tidings, this wondrous and precious 
secret? 

Will it do to say that the idea of immortality was 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 41 

with Noah in the Ark, and that it scattered with and 
clung to his posterity after the flood had washed the 
face of our guilty globe? No, this, to say no more, 
seems exceedingly improbable — is at best but a the- 
ory without proof, and hence avails nothing in the 
argument. Then, will it do to say that the arrange- 
ment of things, the grand works of nature, have 
placed this idea within the ready reach of human rea- 
son, and hence its universality? Isot while the proof 
for this assertion is so hard to find; or rather while 
what is adduced as proof (by those who take nature 
as a guide — those who scorn the Bible teaching), 
does not in fact prove anything positively in favor of 
a life beyond time. And our argument being, just 
now, with men who doubt, or scoff at the Scrip- 
tures — with men who scorn or deny the facts of 
Christianity, the proof must come from without the 
sacred record — must not rest in the least degree 
upon Bible declarations, this being but a reasona- 
ble regulation. For, if the Bible be true, we have 
data and instruction plain and explicit — have a com- 
petent and complete guide; and, therefore, have no 
need of analogies drawn from nature or our earthly 
surroundings, in any way, to tell us of a life beyond 
death. 

And if the Bible be denied or doubted, and nature 
is appealed to for a positive testimony in respect to 
an after world, nature must stand as an isolated and 
lone witness in the case — must stand by herself. 
And now, standing in this position, we are told, for 



42 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL', 

instance, that our desires, or longings for immortal- 
ity, are plain proof that such a state awaits us here- 
after. And the argument is laid in this way. TVe 
desire food, rest, wealth, fame and the like, and God 
has furnished the means for the gratification of each 
of these desires ; and hence, it is claimed that he has 
also furnished the gratification of the desire for im- 
mortality. 

And stated in this way, the reasoning looks quite 
plausible; but if we go around this babel of human 
contrivance, we directly discover that the top does 
not reach to the sky, and what is more alarming still, 
we find that the foundation of the whole fabric is 
shifting, treacherous sand. That is, we find that in- 
stead of all the desires and longings of the soul being 
gratified, many of them never can be gratified in any 
sense, either in this life, or in the next. Hence the 
argument, instead of being a well wrought chain, is 
simply a rough pile of broken links. For instance, 
there was a wealthy and pious banker who for years 
ardently wished for a child to whom he might leave 
his thousands and his palace, yet he died without an 
heir, and his immense treasures were soon divided by 
his envious and prodigal brothers. Now, will he 
ever have a child to heir that estate? The reasonable 
answer is, never. Again, here are hundreds of men 
who long to possess vast wealth — long to be the 
greatest of all the living and to govern all around 
them; and yet they live and die mere servants, in 
huts, hovels and shanties; unless a few, perchance, 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 43 

may die in the penitentiary or the almshouse. Again, 
now and then you will find a man who scorns all con- 
trol — who longs to take the keys of power into his 
own hands and to govern and control the Creator 
himself. Now what do you think will be done about 
it? In other words, will these desires be likely to be 
gratified soon? If everybody says no, then the mere 
longing for immortality may mean something, or 
may mean nothing at all, so far as we can judge from 
the mere wish itself. Hence our longings will never 
pierce the thick curtain of the skies, so as to bring 
light from the upper and heavenly country; nor will 
they tell us what lies beyond the veil. 

Nearly the same may be said as to our dread of 
annihilation, and of our dislike to stop thinking, when 
death folds our hands for the sleep of the tomb. For 
in other things, we see, that what we dread and dep- 
recate most often comes first — often comes in its 
terror, and comes to stay. For instance, the mother 
sitting by the sick cot of an only child, and watching 
for weeks by its little pillow of pain, dislikes to see 
its flesh waste, and dreads the grim march of the dis- 
ease; but what avails it all? Do her dislikes and 
dreads weaken the disease, or slacken the tread of the 
destroyer? No, not in the least. Her streaming 
tears soon fall on the cold, dead face of her babe, and 
the clods of clay soon hide it from her sight in the 
deep damps of the grave. 

Again, the argument so ingeniously drawn from 
the inequalities, the wrongs and woes of human allot- 



4A THE PROBLEM OF EVIL J 

ment, can only be available, as proof of a life beyond 
death, by presuming that God is just — by claiming 
that stern rectitude will at length come to the rescue 
and repay the ills of this world by joy and rejoicing 
in the next. 

But, although this presumption may be strictly cor- 
rect — although we may not be able to prove that it is 
not so, it is proper to ask if we can prove that it is 
so; and proper also to ask why these inequalities ex- 
ist to-day? Why they have ever existed? That is, it 
is proper to ask, Why there is injustice, oppression 
and wrong at all; and why does not the Creator now 
deal out to each man his exact due for his deeds? If 
God is unchangeable, then, to-morrow will neither add 
to nor take from, his goodness and power; and hence 
will not prepare him to do more or better for us than 
he can do to-day in the same circumstances. Hence, 
unless something shall change the circumstances be- 
tween us and our Creator, we may expect that he will 
continue to act as he now acts towards us. And as to 
circumstances, we are poor judges of what they may 
be as the days and the years may dash along, and 
hence, we cannot tell whether better or worse awaits 
us, even in this life; and much less can we tell (by 
reason), what may await us beyond; or whether in 
fact anything awaits us at all — whether we shall exist 
beyond. All this may appear dark and frightful to 
those who are accustomed to look at eternity only 
through the glass of the " gospel " — to those who in 
the sweet and precious words of the Bible have read 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 45 

their heirship to eternal rest and reward — to crowns of 
gold and diadems of immortal pearl on the bright and 
joyous hills of heaven. But facts are facts in spite of 
all this mortal fear and shrinking, and will remain 
facts whether we ponder them or not — whether 
we know them or not. But lest we be misunder- 
stood in all this — lest it may seem that we intend 
harm to human happiness; or, that we intend to 
put out the last lamp of hope in the human heart, it 
may be proper to say just here, that although we are 
obliged to discard some of the arguments of certain 
authors who jn'etend to have found the word {mortal- 
ity on the pages of nature's book, still we believe that 
the evidence for a future state found in every human 
breast, that the constant conviction that death is not 
the end of us, that " the soul immortal as its sire shall 
never die," is abundant and full. Hence we need not 
fear to sift the subject thoroughly and fully — need 
not hesitate to scan every argument and testimony 
presented, to prove a future existence, with the cold, 
clear gaze of a critic's eye. For, whatever there may 
be upon this subject which will not endure the closest 
criticism, is not worth retaining — is not precious, 
golden truth. 

But to explain a little. The manner we have 
adopted in these introductory chapters, or rather this 
reasoning from nature alone, apart from the Bible and 
as though there were no bibles, may appear strange 
and wrong indeed to some minds; and so it would be 
under certain circumstances ; but when men scorn the 



46 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

only clear record which God has given of himself 
and of his will — when they boldly and defiantly at- 
tempt to place reason above revelation, and to declare 
that nature " is a lamp unto their feet and a light un- 
to their path," what better can vve do for them than 
to show them the mistakes they always make in read- 
ing the book of their choice, viz, nature, by reading 
for them carefully and correctly this book? And 
then, there is another class of men and women, who 
think the Bible to be a very good book indeed, on the 
whole, and yet their faith therein is exceedingly slight 
and evanesant; for they are ready to question or re- 
ject any portion of the Bible, when, perchance, its 
teaching does not exactly agree with their ideas or 
notions of things. Hence, in our next chapter we 
propose to put the Bible on the shelf with the al- 
manac and try our light — try our reason without 
it. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 47 



CHAPTER III. 

NATURE DENIES THE JUSTICE OF GOD. 

Man naturally believes that God is Good — The Mind will not 
credit Reason when it intimates or says there is no Future — 
Butler places too much Confidence in the Continuance of Nature 
as it is. 

What we wish to show in this chapter is simply 
this, that nature does not declare the justice of the 
Creator. And until his justice is established in some 
way, we cannot make it the basis of an argument in 
favor of a future state. For, if he is not just Ave can- 
not tell what he may do — what will happen either to 
us or to others. The rule of justice is to do right, 
but the rule of injustice is simple caprice. 

Now the idea that God is infinitely just seems so 
clear to the human soul, that we very naturally think 
that all his works show his justice, show him upright 
and good; and the mind readily revolts at the inti- 
mation that his works do not show this. Hence, we 
are predisposed to enlist in his defense at once and to 
seek for some apology — some secret cause for any 
action, or work of his, which originating in any other 
source, would receive our ready, and, as we would say, 
reasonable censure. Let us take this thought along 
with us as we go out to scan the system of nature — 
as we go to take the judgment seat in this case. And 



48 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL J 

as we go, a fearful storm of rain accompanied by 
wind, thunder and lightning is just over and directly 
we observe that a child and its pet dog have been struck 
by lightning and happily they are both dead. A little 
further on, however, we find a beautiful boy of two 
summers, who has been injured by the falling of a 
limb from a tree standing in the yard. He is wond- 
erfully bruised. His little body is one bundle of 
agony, and pain runs a riot in his tender flesh. The 
physician is a long way off, and before the little bones 
can be set, time must elapse and the suffering must go 
on. The physician comes at last, but the boy cannot 
live, and yet he does not die soon. The hours roll on 
heavily, and the whole household shakes with sorrow. 
Muffled feet glide here and there to wait on the suf- 
ferer, and the language of the anxious watchers is in 
low whispers. He is delirious now and talks incoher- 
ently at interims between the sad moans of pain. At 
last the deep breathing ceases, the lips are still — the 
boy is dead. Now who is blameable in this case ? Who 
is the cause of this suffering ? Who has sinned ? The 
boy? No, he was too young. The parents? Prob- 
ably; but the punishment due for their sin should not 
fall on that poor child; but on themselves — on the 
guilty party. It might be just to punish them — to 
cause them to suffer; but it is unjust, according to 
our ideas of justice, to make this tender child suffer 
instead, except it should be by the child's consent; 
and there is no consent of the child in this case. 
Some one says, this child suffered because the laws 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 49 

of nature are so arranged that he could not escape suf- 
fering in some degree. True enough; but who ar- 
ranged these laws ? Themselves ? No ; that would be 
impossible. Law never does anything; it is simply a 
rule by which an agent or an actor works. Hence, 
the laws of nature neither made nor arranged them- 
selves ; but were evidently made and arranged by some 
wise and powerful hand. For everywhere in nature 
we see displays of infinite wisdom and power — see 
there is no lack in these directions; but there does 
seem to be a lack of justice. 

If this child had been killed at once, like the child 
and the dog which were killed during the storm of 
that morning, the case would be entirely different; 
and our alarm and censure would be very much less. 
In other words, if the suffering had not been so great 
and so protracted, it would not appear so unjust — so 
barbarous and unfeeling. Or, if the party suffering 
had been in the least degree guilty or blameable, the 
case would not be so dark — would not defy all ex- 
planation. As it is, there seems to be no principle of 
justice which will apply to it — no rule of right with 
which it will agree. Why, just suppose a case. Here 
is a large family, and the most of them have diso- 
beyed the father's commands. A few are innocent, 
i. 0., have never done an intentional wrong. Now, if 
the father brings the rod upon the crowd indiscrim- 
inately, hitting and hurting one like the other, and 
apparently not caring if the blows fall the heaviest 
upon the most tender, helpless and innocent, what 
4 



50 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

will you say of him? What will you think of his 
plan of government, whether you say anything or not? 
Now there is no disguise here; the case is plain, and 
with the thought prominently in view that man is 
generally ignorant and frail, still, of this man, though 
somewhat ignorant, we would say in a breath — would 
say at once, "He is a wretch" — he has no law but 
caprice or passion; his is not a government, but a bar- 
barous, heartless despotism. We would say he has 
not even the heart of a brute, and if our interests in 
the future were in the least dependent upon him, we 
would dread the future, would despair of ever seeing 
happy days. Here are inequalities and wrongs you 
can see; but these wrongs and inequalities are the very 
things that put out the eyes of hope. And the idea 
that this father will some clay make amends, will re- 
pay the pain and reward the shame in the case, is 
nowhere' in sight — is not the thought which is upper- 
most or prominent in the mind, but the contrary in 
every respect and in every degree. 

And by the light of mere reason the government of 
the world seems somewhat analagous to this, if not 
quite like it. So much so, at least, that all thought- 
ful heathen, through all the dark long ago, clearly 
and readily discovered this feature, or fact in na- 
ture — this apparent injustice in the arrangement of 
mental, as well as of physical laws. Still, strange as 
it may seem, almost universally they held tenaciously 
to the idea that the Deity was a personal benefactor, 
and therefore was not and could not be moved by 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 51 

evil passions. And to account for those appearances 
of injustice in the arrangement of the world which 
tended to contradict this belief, they allowed both 
classes of deities — good and bad — one to be obeyed 
and loved with an intense love; the other to be feared 
indeed, and propitiated if possible. The Greeks, for 
instance, called Jupiter Omnipotent ; but, at the same 
time, held that he was not superior to Fate. And the 
opposition of Fate, with them, readily accounted for 
the mischiefs which befel them, and which Jupiter 
would but could not prevent. 

And from this obstinate idea that God is good (not 
saying here what originated the idea) has sprung up 
in the heathen mind, in part at least, the belief that 
nature too is friendly to the interests of man — is his 
benefactor, and hence the personification and worship 
of the forces of nature under the title of Ceres, or 
Minerva, or Bacchus, is easily accounted for. But, to 
return to our subject, or the case of the boy I have 
mentioned, the whole mischief seems to have been 
done by irresponsible agents, unless the Creator is 
largely involved in the transaction. For, the tree 
and the wind could not, in any degree, be responsible 
or blamable, and the boy being so young and igno- 
rant of danger in any such direction, appears to have 
been just as blameless. If the parents should have 
kept the boy in the house, or if the tree should have 
been taken away, and if the parents were culpable for 
neglect in either of these respects, then the pain was 
due to them (if due at all), and not due the child, and 



52 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

hence, could not, as penalty, have been inflicted on the 
child. But if the parents believed that by keeping 
the child within doors, its health and life would be 
endangered, and if the tree was planted and intended 
as a shade, for the pleasure of the child, or to prevent 
sun-stroke, then what better could they have done? 
In other words, if these loving, doting parents did all 
in their power to prevent harm from finding their 
child; did all in their power to meet their responsi- 
bility as parents, then there was no cause for the pain, 
so far as we can see, and yet it was there. Again, if 
we say that we could not be made capable of enjoy- 
ment unless we were also subject to suffering, which 
is probably true, still it would seem that we might 
have been so placed and so instructed (although free 
indeed in all our actions) as that we would have 
shared the joy without, in any large degree, sharing 
or tasting of pain. For, if this could not be; if all 
must drink the wormwood of sorrow before they can 
taste or appreciate the pure nectar of joy; or if sor- 
row and joy, like twin sisters, must each take one of 
our hands and accompany us and every moral agent 
in all the paths of life, in order that we may be in- 
structed in the secret of happiness, then pain is a 
teacher, a friend, a blessing indeed, rather than a vis- 
itation or reward for evil actions done. And if it is 
a necessary teacher to us to-day, will the hour ever 
come when we may not need such a teacher? In 
other words, if the Creator must have the aid of pain 
and sorrow to properly instruct and guide us to-day, 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 53 

can lie ever dispense with these important allies in 
our case, in the long hereafter? 

Again, if an eternal being is, of necessity, unchange- 
able, is ever the same in nature;* and if he now insti- 
gates and permits such inequalities and oppressions 
among his creatures, may he not be expected to do so 
for ever and ever, or, rather, will he not be likely to 
do this? Once more, if we suppose that God can, but 
vnll not, do better for us than he now does, where is 
the ground for hoping that the future state will make 
amends for the ills of this? And if we suppose that 
he would, but cannot do any better for us, will he al- 
ways be thus weak and powerless? Hence, whichever 
way we run in these directions, the clouds of fear and 
uncertainty only widen and blacken overhead, and the 
doubt, whether our Creator lacks power or willingness 
to help and to bless us, only increases. 

Thus we see that we not only need to be assured 
that there is a future state, but also that happiness 
awaits us there; not only that there is joy eternal in 
the abodes of bliss; but how we may attain unto it — 
how we may make it sure. 

Hence, if we could clearly prove the immortality of 
the soul by the works of Nature, still, to the eye of 
reason alone, the thick mists of uncertainty and of fear 
would hang along the horizon of thought and lie like 
a damp shroud on every hope of the heart. But we 
will pursue this thought no further here, as we shall 
consider it more fully in another connection. Enough 
* Axiom, 10. 



54 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

has been said to show that no argument of value can 
be drawn from the inequalities and ills of this life to 
prove a life after death ; and also to show the value of 
the Bible as "a light in a dark place." 

You will notice that we do not say here that those 
who have no Bible know nothing of a future life. 
That is not what we mean. "We simply mean to say 
that the light of reason cannot illuminate or cheer the 
dark valley of death, nor show us the heavenly hills 
beyond. In other words, we mean to say that the 
lamp of human reason goes out at the grave — that it 
cannot burn in the damps of the sepulcher, and that 
the more we rely on simple reason the darker the 
tomb and the future appear. Yet notwithstanding this 
fact, religion always has had, and always must have, 
the theory of a future state in it — must have this idea 
as the keystone of its arch, or it cannot be the strength 
and solace of the soul in the rough and rugged walk 
of life. 

Indeed, without this idea, time is but a troubled 
dream, life a riddle of riddles, and the Creator him- 
self a fearful and an endless enigma. For, without a 
future existence to make amends for the ills and in- 
equalities of the present state, the charge of injustice 
can hardly fail to fall upon our Creator; i. e., the pres- 
ent system of things seems to be unequal, arbitrary 
and unjust. And if God is unjust, our condition is 
not only a hopeless one, but the blackness of darkness 
must curtain the heavens, and the light of every happy 
expectation must go out in utter night. And that 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 55 

such would be the condition of man to-day, if reason 
alone were the lamp to his path, is unquestionable. 

Hence, there must be some good reason (apart from 
anything we find in nature), why the idea of immor- 
tality has- followed man in all his widest wanderings, 
and been the angel of his days. First, because, as we 
have seen, it is a necessity of his earthly condition ; and 
second, because it is the natural current of his thought, 
the inborn and abiding conviction of his soul. 

This last idea, or fact, we conceive, is the main if 
not the only positive proof to man (apart from the 
Bible) that there is a life to live after death. And 
this fact is the answer to the question, " How came 
the idea of immortality so universal — so common to 
the race?" This clears up the mystery readily, and 
solves the wonderful problem by a touch. 

This, however has not been the answer of the learned 
world; has not been the decree of diets, conventions 
and councils, for they have thought otherwise; but this 
is the brief, deliberate and decisive proclamation of 
heaven — the deep and constant utterance of God to 
the human spirit. In plainer words, it is the Eternal 
One, speaking in all climes, in all dialects, and under 
all diversities of birth, education, color, class, tempera- 
ment and tendency, to every rational son and daughter 
of Adam. Leaving none out, leaving none destitute of 
the happy thought, expectation or assurance that be- 
yond the "dark river " are fields of light and bowers 
of bliss for all the good and the true, and prolonged 
existence for all. This is God's method of instruc- 



56 

tion; this the divine lore of the skies which comes to 
all without toil or cost — comes without the asking. 
And as we shall soon see, this idea, this abiding and 
constant conviction of the soul, that it shall outlast 
the sun — shall be young and ruddy when the moon 
is old and gray, is the strange, the stubborn cause why 
no theory of annihilation — no reading of the darker 
chapters of nature's great book can for a day smother 
or displace this expectation of a future life in the un- 
sophisticated soul. Thus it is that this God-given 
conviction in the human mind ever is and ever re- 
mains the soul's undimmed, unclouded polar star, in 
all the wild night of time. We have already said, this 
settled belief in a future state is a necessity of man's 
earthly condition, or an outgrowth of his soul's press- 
ing want. Hence, every writer of any wide reputa- 
tion, either in prose or in poetry, has given the idea 
of immortality a prominent place in his pages, and 
impressed its importance and blessedness on the mem- 
ories of men. And yet many of them have failed to 
discover that the idea is so directly and so completely 
God-given; hence, they have attempted to assume for 
it another basis, and vainly attempted to show by a 
process of reasoning, as well as by a line of analogy, 
that the thinking will go on in the soul at the moment 
of death and after death quite as it does during the 
natural life. For instance, in the first chapter of his 
Analogy, Bishop Butler says: 

' ' Though from our present constitution and condition of being, 
our external organs of sense are necessary for conveying in ideas to 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 57 

our reflecting powers, as carriages and levers and scaffolds are in 
architecture; yet when these ideas are brought in, we are capable 
of reflecting in the most intense degree, and of enjoying the great- 
est pleasure, and feeling the greatest pain, by means of that reflec- 
tion, without any assistance from our senses, and without any at all 
(i. e., assistance), which we know of, from that body which shall be 
dissolved by death. It does not appear, then, that the relation of 
this gross body to the reflecting being is, in any degree, necessary 
to tliinking, to our intellectual enjoyments or sufferings, nor, conse- 
quently, that the dissolution or alienation of the former by death, 
will be the destruction of those present powers which render us capa- 
ble of this state of reflection." 

Here, you see, the Bishop plainly tells us, that we 
can reflect upon what is already in the mind, without 
any assistance from the body, which dies at death. 
If this is so, then either the brain is no part of "this 
gross oody" or else we can reflect without a brain. 
And the question whether we can or cannot now 
reflect without a brain does not seem a difficult ques- 
tion to answer, for we know by a thousand experiences 
that, when the brain is vitally deranged, by a blow, 
by a pressure of blood, an inflammation, etc., all re- 
flection (that is all connected, rational reflection) is at 
an end. 

In other words, all the time which intervenes be- 
tween a serious injury of the brain and a measurable 
repair of that injury is, to the injured man, a nonen- 
tity; or as though it had not been. Hence, the infer- 
ence would seem to be that to be without a brain is 
the same as not to be; and that when death shall bring 
the body to decay and corruption, reason, reflection, 
and memory will of necessity thereafter entirely cease. 



58 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

Mind, we do not say this is so, but simply that human 
reason would make it seem to be so. 

Thus we see that the best argument which the Bish- 
op brings, from the domain of natnre and reason, to 
prove the immortality of the soul, is annihilated by a 
simple, single touch of common sense. 

Again, his reference to instances where the mind is 
clear and strong to the last moment of life, and from 
which he makes his inference that death may not de- 
stroy our present powers of reflection, may not dis- 
turb the " chain of reason," does not shed one ray of 
new light on the darkness of death. For, we find that 
when the vital powers of the body are overcome by 
any disease which does not particularly disturb or 
derange the functions of the brain, the man reasons 
and plans to the last. But, whenever and by what- 
ever means the vital functions of the brain are seri- 
ously disturbed (whether death ensues soon or delays 
for years), the reasoning and memory of that mind 
come to a stand-still at once. 

We shall likely be told that this sort of argument 
tends to materialism — tends to blot out hope, and to 
cloud all the future, and so probably it will appear to 
do to any one who has not taken a careful survey of the 
whole ground — who has not communed with the won- 
derful subject, and with his God, until the light from 
the eternal throne, the light of the blessed spirit, lias 
chased all the shadows away from him, and lit up the 
tomb by its blessed rays. And whether the argument 
does or does not tend to materialism, is not the ques- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 59 

tion in hand — is not the thing to be thought of in 
the argument. The question is simply this, Is the 
reasoning sound? Is there any misstatement of the 
facts, or any fallacy in the argument drawn from them ? 
If not, then the position of the Bishop is not tenable, 
and whatever rests upon it, rests upon thin air — rests 
upon nothing. 

I think I do not misunderstand the Bishop. For, 
he goes on to say: 

' ' There appears so little connection between our bodily powers of 
sensation, and our present power of reflection, that there is no rea- 
son to conclude that death, which destroys the former, does so much 
as suspend the exercise of the latter, or interrupt our continuing to 
exist in the like state of reflection which we do now. For suspen- 
sion of reason, memory, and the affections which they excite, is no 
part of the idea of death, nor is implied in our notion of it. And 
our daily experiencing these powers ('reason and memory, 1 of 
course), to be exercised without any assistance, that we know of, 
from those bodies which will be dissolved by death, and our finding 
often that the exercise of them is so lively to the last, these things 
afford a sensible apprehension that death may not, perhaps, be so 
much as a discontinuance of these powers, nor of the enjoyments 
and sufferings which it implies. 1 ' 

Now you will notice that he says in plain words in 
this quotation, " that w T e daily experience the exercise 
of the powers of reason and memory, without any as- 
sistance that we know of from those bodies which 
will be dissolved by death." Just as though a man 
had been known to reason without the aid of his 
brains; or (if he could not do this), as though the 
brain does not die at death ; neither of which can be 
true. For, when a blow falls on a man's head, it 



60 THE PSOBLEM OF EVIL; 

must be his body and not his mind that is struck — 
his brain and not his spiritual part that is injured. 
And yet during the time necessary for the brain to 
recover somewhat from the effects of the blow, he does 
not reason, does not apparently know who, how, or 
where he is, any more than the rose under his win- 
dow. Now, if the man can reason and remember with- 
out the body which dies at death, then why is it that 
this man remembers nothing that transpired in all 
this interval of time? 

Again, when the brain is seriously inflamed by 
fever, or otherwise the reasoning ceases, and, often, 
days and even weeks pass away without the man 
knowing his right hand from his left, or his friend 
from his foe. And yet it cannot be the mind that is 
inflamed, it must be the body. Hence, according to 
the Bishop's statement, the reasoning and remember- 
ing should go on as usual ; at least, it should not en- 
tirely cease for the little bodily derangement. Yet, 
we find that they invariably cease when the inflamma- 
tion progresses to a given point. 

Thus, it would seem by all this that the present ex- 
ercise of the mental powers is dependent upon the 
condition of the brain, and hence upon its presence. 
And if dependent upon its presence, then when the 
brain is cold in death, or rotted in the grave, it would 
appear that all thought and consciousness must be 
over. Hence, according to this reasoning it will 
stand thus: a sound brain, power to think and reason; 
a diseased brain, deranged reason; no brain, no rea- 



OE, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 61 

son, no consciousness. This seems to be the final 
and legitimate result of cold logic upon this import- 
ant topic — dread nonentity. And jet the human 
mind has no confidence in this conclusion ; will not 
long rest here; will not believe the conclusion correct. 
It puts full and unbounded confidence in the power 
and truthfulness of logic generally, and rests upon 
the careful and ultimate results of reason; but still in 
this case the soul revolts, rebels, spits in the face of 
reason, mocks logic, and points with a firm finger to 
the immortal clime — to the blessed and high home 
of the soul beyond the storms, beyond the clouds and 
beyond the sun of this weary world, and breaks out 
into a song — 

"There is my house and mansion fair, 
My treasure and my heart are there, 
And my eternal home." 

It takes the least hinting at, the least intimation 
given in favor of immortality, as a conclusive proof 
that 

11 The sun is but a spark of fire, 
A transient meteor in the sky; 
The soul, immortal as its sire, 
Shall never die." ■ 

For instance, it observes that a loathsome and ugly 
looking worm, the catepillar, after passing through a 
brief change, assumes a new life, puts on gaudy and 
shining robes, takes wings and flies proudly toward 
the sun, a beauty and a pet wherever it may wander; 
and it argues from this that to us death will be a like 



62 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

change, and that beyond the boundaries of the grave 
the soul, dressed in a glorious garb, shall see the 
King in his beauty; shall bask in the blessed light of 
the eternal sun, and sing forever in the shining and 
cloudless clime. Forgetting all the time that change, 
even for the better, is no pledge for an endless life, 
and forgetting also to notice, or to be warned by a strug- 
gling butterfly with a broken wing lying on the 
window sill; or by hundreds of their dead bodies 
swept by the wind into the pool to be heard of no 
more forever. And more than all, forgetting that the 
butterfly, like every other fly, and like every other 
breathing thing of earth, must die after all. Hence, 
all the improvements in its dress, and all the addi- 
tions to its privileges are only for a moment, and a 
brief, troubled moment at that. And perhaps we are 
hardly prepared to say that the butterfly, with all its 
beauty and privileges, is in the least happier or better 
than the catepillar it once was; or, that a thousand 
more of like improvements would or could make it 
more completely happy than when it crawled leisurely 
wherever it wished. 

Thus, whichever way we follow reason alone, touch- 
ing the future, the path seems to wind downward 
toward doubt, uncertainty and a dreaded darkness in- 
deed ; and the lights of hope to go out one after another, 
continually, until the soul, if leaning alone upon rea- 
son, is chilled by the prospect, and shudders with a 
fear and a foreboding which no pen can describe and 
no pencil portray. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 63 

And yet after all this, as we have already intimated, 
the mind will not long lie under this load, nor wander 
long in this fog of doubt and of darkness; but rising in 
the might and positiveness of its faithful and healthful 
instincts, it throws cold and dry reason to the idle 
winds and turns its longing look toward the hills of 
immortality — toward the realm of eternal sunshine 
and song, with a calm and confiding gaze. It bases its 
trust not on reason, but on native, and soul knowl- 
edge — not on analogy or the changes and casualties 
of time, but upon the voice of Heaven within. 

Again, Bishop Butler (Analogy, page 58) attempts 
to bridge the gulf of the grave by the thought, infer- 
ence or notion, so common to the human mind, that 
nature and the things around us will continue to 
exist and operate something as they now do. That is, 
he strives to build an argument for a future life upon 
the idea of continuance so native to our present mode 
of thinking about to-morrow; just as though and im- 
plying that this idea of immortality has originated in 
our observance of nature, instead of its being what it 
is, an inborn, innate and divine assurance of the soul. 

True, we have faith in nature and carry the con- 
viction about with us that the sun will rise and set — - 
that the seasons will come and go as they have been 
wont to do. Yet when we reflect a moment, we see that 
the earth and the order we now observe in it — see 
that this system of variety was not from eternity * i. e., 
we know that it had a beginning, and hence, may or 
* Axiom, 11. 



64: THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

must have an end. And this end will naturally be 
expected sooner or later by us as our ideas of nature 
and of its author may vary. So that our idea of this 
continuance finally rests down on the will of the 
operator or originator of this system. For, when this 
system was inaugurated, continuance as to what had 
been came to an end; and inasmuch as one change 
was made by the Author of nature, analogy will in- 
dicate that another may or will be made whenever He 
wills to have a change. So that the idea of continu- 
ance gives us no promise or prospect of a future life, 
because the whole matter hinges upon whether the 
Creator wills that we continue beyond the grave, or 
cease to think at death, which is the very question in 
hand. 



OR, THEORY AXD THEOLOGY. 65 



CHAPTER IY. 

SOURCES OF KNOWLEDGE. 

Bishop Butler's Analogy in Fault — The True Analogy — Nature 
has no Key to a Future State — The Idea of Immortality is 
Intuitive or God-given — Conscience not a Faculty, but God 
speaking to tJie Soul — No General Rule of Right discoverable 
by Conscience. 

From the preceding chapter, it would seem that the 
Bishop has overlooked the real ground or testimony 
on which a true belief in immortality must rest, and 
entirely mistaken the end to which analogy would 
lead us. And thus has attempted to make it prove 
just the contrary, or nearly the contrary of that which 
it naturally does prove, if it proves anything. For 
he would have us believe that it points to an individ- 
ual future — that it teaches that when the body dies, 
the soul simply continues to live on. "Whereas, if we 
have not mistaken its real teaching, if we have read 
its lessons correctly, it says there will be no individual 
future for you, or for me — for any man; that death 
is the end of personality with each man, woman and 
child of the entire race. For, in all the workings of 
nature around us, we observe that one law governs all 
decaying and dissolving forms ; namely, that " the dust 
returns to dust as it was," and that the decayed part- 
icles of the vegetables and animals of former years go 
5 



to nourish and beautify the plants and flowers of the 
present year. It should be observed, however, that 
these present plants and flowers are not the same 
plants and flowers which decked the plain years ago, 
but similar to them, just as two roses in the vase at 
the door are similar, but yet distinct and individual 
roses. And thus, as no individual rose, plant, or tree 
of former time reappears in the vegetable world, or a 
body of an animal in the animal world; hence, an- 
alogy would say that no human body will reappear — 
no individual man or woman will reappear either in 
mind or body. 

In other words, analogy would say that as each 
body after death, both of plants and of men, decays 
and goes back to the mass of matter from which it 
was taken, so each mind will go back to the mass, or 
fountain of mind. 

And as the same particles which have been together 
in any particular tree or animal body never appear to 
be again brought together, after the dissolution of 
that body, so as to make the same identical body again 
(but go to make up in part many other bodies), so the 
mind, having fallen back into the mass of mind, may 
go to make up parts of many other minds, and hence 
will never be the same mind again — will never be the 
same individual, hereafter, in any particular. 

Thus the light of analogy, in respect to a future 
state, goes out just when we need it most — goes out 
at the door of the tomb, and leaves us to find our way 
as best we can by other means. Thus, too, we per- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 67 

ceive that instead of its being a lamp to cheer and 
illume the sepulcher, it becomes a dense cloud to 
cover it — instead of its lighting us through the dark 
vale of death to the home of angels and of God, it 
puts a black screen between us and the bright and 
blessed land of love and of rest. 

Therefore, if we had only analogy to light our path 
and to guide our steps, the blackness of darkness would 
hang in its gloom over all the map of the future, and 
the dread and terror of death would be increased a 
hundred fold. Hence, although as before stated, man 
as man, believes and has reason to believe that death 
is not the end of personal and conscious existence, yet 
that analogy has, or can lead to such a belief of itself, 
seems of all things the most improbable — seems of 
all things most unlikely to happen. For (as the reader 
can readily see), in our hands the rods of analogy will 
neither bud nor blossom with hope for the dead; but 
constantly, otherwise — constantly will declare that 
death is a long, long dream of the soul; or in the 
words of the French infidelity, "an eternal sleep." 

By all this it would seem, not that the Bishop was 
wrong in the idea that there is a future for the 
soul; nor wrong in believing that the knowledge 
of that future is so placed as to be available to all 
rational men; but wrong in the source from which this 
knowledge is derived, and in his method of showing 
that the soul does not die with the body. If he had 
opened his analogy with the assertion that without 
the idea of immortality, the system of nature would 



68 

appear a tangled skein and the character of the Crea- 
tor black with injustice, partiality and cruelty; and if 
he had then affirmed that Grod speaks clearly and di- 
rectly to the human soul, and thus informs each and 
every rational creature, he has made, that it is im- 
mortal and hence shall not sleep in the grave, shall not 
cease to know and think when the clay drops off; he 
would have let us into the great temple of fact, upon 
this theme of the future; in a single breath — would 
have opened one of the seven seals of mystery at a 
touch, and cut the Grordian knot, instanter. Or, to 
work the thought into a web of analogy; if he had 
said the beasts of the field are well supplied with the 
knowledge requisite for their condition; that is, have 
generally, all the means for satisfying their natural 
wants ; and if he had from those facts, reasoned by 
analogy that man, too, must be thus supplied, and 
that to supply man in like manner, considering his 
condition and nature, the idea, or the knowledge of 
immortality must be individually, directly and clearly 
imparted to him — must follow and live with him in 
all his wanderings and in all the eras of time; then, 
we could understand him — then he would have made 
analogy act the high part it is capable of acting, and 
touched a thread of thought at once grand and paci- 
fying to the human soul, in all the diversities of its 
earthly lot. (See page 270.) 

In other words, although we may deeply feel that 
this, our present state, is one of privation, sin and 
suffering — although we may be vexed, pained and 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 69 

troubled by the ills and sorrows to which we are sub- 
ject, in the allotments of life; jet, if we still feel sure 
that the Infinite One has not forgotten nor forsaken 
us, and that He will never forget nor forsake his trust- 
ing followers — if we feel certain that He daily im- 
presses upon our minds the assurance that death is not 
annihilation — that we are immortal, or clearly com- 
municates to us the welcome truth that a long, long 
eternity is before us — that the grave is simply a 
short rest for the body, but no prison for the soul, and 
that through all the eternal years, a rich reward shall 
be given for all we suffer here; then the clouds are 
broken — lifted — and the joyous light of hope, sweet 
and refreshing as dew on the flowers in the drought 
of the summer time, falls around us in all the gay 
beauty and richness of its charming self. We no 
longer feel alone, forsaken and poor — no longer be- 
lieve ourselves outcasts and orphans on this desert 
shore, but by nature and in reality, children of high 
rank and royalty, and, if good and true to our trust, 
heirs to a costly crown in the kingdom of light, joy and 
song, toward which we hasten. 

But, in respect to the source from whence we have 
obtained the belief in immortality, or the means by 
which we have come to know that the soul does not 
die at death, there may, perhaps, be opposite opinions 
among the readers of this little volume; and some 
may still suppose that they have obtained this knowl- 
edge from nature, although it is evident that nature 
contains no such information — no such evidence. 



70 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

In other words, if the idea can be pressed out of the 
works of God as seen in nature around us — if by any 
mental alchemy this golden knowledge can be pro- 
duced from the objects of earth, then the secret of the 
experiment, it seems, is still carefully kept from 
man — is, as yet, hopelessly hidden from even the 
wise ones of earth. 

True, several plausible plans and directions for find- 
ing in natural objects the proofs of immortality have 
been published, or given to the world; but when ex- 
amined closely they utterly fail to assure us that there 
is such a state for the soul — utterly fail to answer 
the question, "If a man die, shall he live again?" 
Hence, the real state of the case seems to be that na- 
ture has never answered this question and never can 
answer it sure — that she is as mute as marble and as 
dumb as death, when the question is soberly pro- 
pounded to her. 

In fact, it seems that God intended to so arrange 
the physical world and to so place man thereon, as 
that man should of necessity look to Him, and not to 
nature — should depend upon Him, and not upon his 
works, for a guide to his conduct and for a foundation 
for his faith. That is, to depend upon Him for a 
light to his soul in time, and for a hope to his heart 
for eternity. 

And now, without intending to anticipate the future 
of these pages, it may be said just here, that when it 
is proven that nature can neither reveal to us a future 
state, nor show us the goodness of the Creator — when 



71 

we have tried again, and again, and tried in vain, 
with the aid which nature proffers, to pry open the 
gates of light upon these subjects, then the Bishop's 
analogy, in respect to a future state, will appear 
badly shattered, if not entirely broken and ruined. 
That is, the lines of light, looked for, will be dim and 
poor, if not worthless indeed, except as supplemented, 
or redrawn by some hand reached down from the 
skies. And if we take out of any published work on 
analogy just two ideas, 1st, that of a future state, and, 
2d, the idea that God is good, the balance of the 
work will be a sad wreck, sure — will be a hopeless 
ruin. 

And if the idea of immortality is not found in na- 
ture — if a future state cannot be proven by any or 
all the objects of creation, and if, beside these facts, 
the earth and its inhabitants, as we shall yet glance 
at them, shall not appear by any possibility to the 
eye of reason, to be the works of a wise, powerful and 
good being (i. e., not the works of a good being), then 
what we and the world want most is, not any known 
work on analogy, or natural theology, but " the Bible," 
and what must surely take its place with those who 
have no Bible (and be the corroborating evidence 
thereof to those who have), the clear and plain voice 
of God himself addressing the soul — the sweet light of 
the Divine Spirit shining fully on the heart. And 
now if every rational creature under heaven is not 
blessed with at least the light of this spirit, i. e., with 
the teaching of the Great Master ; if this is not a part 



72 

of man's outfit for his toilsome journey on the high- 
way of time, as well as a guide to his soul in the dark- 
ness of doubt, to which he is subject on this earthly 
errand, then of all creatures, known to us, the condi- 
tion of man is the most unexplainable of any — is 
truly dark and destitute, if not hopelessly desperate, 
in fact. But, we have no reason to believe that man 
is so left; indeed, we have the best possible reasons to 
believe just the contrary; to believe as has been said 
again and again, that God speaks directly and plainly 
to all hearts, and sheds light and grace upon each. 
And here we believe is the origin of conscience. That 
is, we deem conscience (or all that is distinct from the 
judgment) to be not "a faculty" — not "a moral 
sense," as referring to any separate attribute of the 
human soul; but simply and directly God speaking 
to the man, woman, or child ; God approving, or 
censuring the acts done, or omitted; God taking the 
judgment-seat of the soul, and continually approving 
any good wish, or any and all well intended actions, 
and condemning all actions evilly intended. 

Thus conscience, or God, speaking to the soul, urges 
us to do what our judgment declares to be right, and 
to refrain from doing what our judgment honestly 
decides to be wrong. Hence, if our education has 
been faulty, and if, for that reason, our judgment is 
incorrect, then the act which God, or conscience ap- 
proves, may not be strictly right, per se, but is right 
for us to do, because we judge it right. Another 
man, whose education has been different from ours, 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 73 

may judge this same action wrong for him to do, and 
in that case, God warns him not to do it, and urges 
or advises him to do something else, which is in ac- 
cordance with the dictates of his judgment. Hence, 
if two men's education has been just the opposite of 
each other, God tells one of these men to do what 
He tells the other man not to do; and in this case, or in 
these circumstances, the same act, precisely, would be 
right for one to do, but wrong for the other, and vice 
versa. At first thought, this seems like confusing and 
mixing the two lines of right and wrong — seems, in 
fact, like breaking down all the distinctions between 
actions, in respect to their real character. And what 
is more, it seems as though God was quite indifferent 
as to what is done, only so the actions agree with the 
judgment, or best knowledge of the actors. And in- 
asmuch as the birth, situation and surroundings of 
each man must vary somewhat from that of others, 
and thus a difference is made in their judgments, or 
in what must be right for them to do; and inasmuch, 
too, as these variations seem to be providential, in- 
stead of being the deliberate choice of the parties, we 
must conclude that the great aim of probation is the 
building up, production, or test of character, rather 
than the exact conformity of actions to any particular 
or definite rule. Xot but that there are plainly some 
great, general rules which have a sort of common ap- 
plication; not but that there must be in the mind of 
the Creator a difference in actions considered by them- 
selves, hence that right and wrong are not things of 



74 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL', 

mere chance ; yet the willingness, or unwillingness to 
obey requirement seems paramount to the mere result 
of any action or any class of actions of which men 
are capable.* The case seems to be something like a 
parent to whom the willful breaking of a costly mirror 
and the breaking of a poor, or old and cracked coffee 
cup, by an erring child, would be the same thing; i. e., 
the mere property would be as nothing compared to 
the moral qualities of the deeds done. 

But this manner of denning conscience may appear 
objectionable, because it brings the Creator directly 
into connection with actions which are so diametri- 
cally opposite to each other, and to actions which 
bring so much sorrow on society, as well as on indi- 
viduals. For example; the ravages of war, with other 
scenes of contention, butchery and blood, are often 
commenced and carried on (it would seem) by both 
parties, under the dictation and guidance of con- 
science. And at first sight this would seem to be a 
fatal objection to this theory; would seem to make 
such a condition of things — such a relation of God 
to human actions — derogatory to the character of 
God, if not impossible in itself. Still, if we reason a 
little, it will be seen that any theory of conscience 
which recognizes the idea that it is right to obey con- 
science, or that it is God's will that we obey it, is 
subject to the same objection, and involves precisely 
the same difficulty. For what we commend others for 
doing ought to be right under the circumstances, and 
* See ch. 17, sec. 2. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 75 

what we blame others for doing ought to be wrong 
under the circumstances. Hence, if conscience is 
from God at all, or if God is pleased to have us obey 
conscience, then the idea of a thousand agents or 
" faculties " (of God's appointment), coming between 
us and Him, in the matter of conscience, will not 
materially alter 'his relation to the moral qualities of 
any actions possible for us to do, whether they may 
be good or bad: that is, whether conscience approves 
or disapproves of them. And this difficulty of ours, 
in making any theory of conscience consistent with 
our ideas of right and justice and honor in our Cre- 
ator, is an old and stubborn difficulty; is a difficulty 
lying in the same plane as that of human depravity, 
human ignorance, and innocent suffering; and will 
naturally come to view again when we treat of those 
grand enigmas or dark riddles of earth and time. 

Still we may say just here, that if any one is greatly 
troubled in view of the fact that conscience seems to 
set two or more parties against each other in strife 
and war, and hence would, in this respect, appear to 
be a messenger of harm and trouble in the abodes of 
men; or if, in view of these appearances, any one is 
ready to conclude that conscience is not the voice of 
God in and to ns — is not the will of heaven in regard 
to man, because of the mischief and misery which 
are thus occasioned — because of the blood and tears 
which are thus shed; we have only to ask them to 
notice the tornado, the plague and the pestilence in 
their wasteful work, that they may discover what God 



76 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

takes the liberty of doing with and among men. And 
now, whether it is more just for God to destroy men 
by disease, famine, earthquakes, pestilence and storms, 
than by wild beasts, or the hands of their fellow men, is 
a question very easily answered, it seems; or, rather, 
there appears to be no difference in respect to the 
righteousness of these varied modes of removing men 
from the stage of life. Each has its shady side — its 
unexplained phenomena; and when one can be recon- 
ciled with the goodness of God, the others can; when 
one can be made to harmonize with the love and in- 
finite justice of the Creator, the others can, also, at 
once. 

The relation of conscience to war may be misunder- 
stood by the above wording, unless it be borne in 
mind that it is education and other circumstances 
which make it appear right to each of two contending 
parties to maintain their cause by an appeal to arms ; 
that is, a difference of judgment; and conscience 
simply says to each, " do right," i. e., do what you think 
is right, in the case. Now it is undoubtedly true that 
much of the confusion of thought and language among 
men, in relation to conscience, originates in the in- 
complete analysis which we have made thereof; or a 
lack of knowledge as to the causes operating in each 
case of conscience; and as to the manner in which 
those causes combine to produce the witnessed results. 

For, if we watch the workings of the human mind 
from the earliest dawn of reason, we readily notice 
that no sooner is the reason awake, than the idea of 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 77 

right and wrong is universally present; that is, pres- 
ent to every rational mind. 

But, whether the idea of right and wrong is directly 
God-given, or, whether it is innate in the human soul, 
need not enter into the enquiry now, is not important 
while it is admitted that every rational mind has the 
idea that some actions are right and some wrong. 
And in every case of conscience, we observe the fol- 
lowing order, or so many prominent causes and re- 
sults : 

1. The action of the reason; or a consideration of 
the facts from which we must judge what will be 
right to do in any given case. 

2. The voice of God calling upon us to do what our 
best judgment says is right. 

3. The consciousness that Ave have attempted to 
obey, or to disobey. 

4. The approval or the disapproval of the act by 
God, as declared to the soul by his spirit. 

5. Our knowledge and remembrance of the trans- 
action, and especially of the approval or disapproval. 

Thus we see that the human and the divine meet 
and combine in producing the acquittal, or the con- 
demnation in every case of conscience; and yet that 
it is God who warns against the wrong and prompts 
to do the right — God who acquits, or condemns in 
each and every possible case. Now, that the theory 
above given has advantages over every other, and 
will greatly aid us in solving the black problem of 
human depravity and woe, seems plain to us, and may 



78 

seem so to the reader as the subjects herein contem- 
plated are successively unrolled to view. Again, if 
this theory is not the true one; if conscience is a hu- 
man "faculty," and yet not the judgment (which of 
course is the mind judging); and yet, is a something 
which judges of what ought, or ought not, to be 
done; or of what ought, or ought not to have been 
done at any particular time, or in any particular case, 
then it will be exceedingly difficult to define what 
conscience is; difficult to imagine what it possibly 
can be. For, in this view, conscience seems to be a 
monster; seems to be human and yet not human; 
seems to be the judgment and yet not the judgment. 
In fact, it would appear that we must have two judg- 
ments, which is nearly equivalent to saying that we 
have two minds. There surely seem to be two intel- 
ligences — two wills — one condemning, or acquitting 
the other; one blaming, or praising the other. 
Hence, if conscience is a human faculty, and if the 
human mind is not dual in its composition, then we 
may let the curtain fall; for the play is through, at 
least the intelligent part of it, and the balance is not 
worth a tithe of the time it demands. 

Now, it seems that no one, in his senses, will deny 
that God in some way recognizes man and knows 
man; and that at times, at least, he has communica- 
tions to him, if not communion with him. And, 
perhaps, few will deny that God can and does show 
to his creatures that he is pleased, or displeased with 
them in certain respects, or in relation to certain acts. 



79 

And if this cannot be denied — if God really does 
communicate with his creature — if he ever has 
shown his approbation or his disapprobation of any 
specified actions, then, the theory of conscience, we 
have advanced, will only be a simple enlargement of 
this acknowledged fact. And if God has not, and 
will not have, any direct connection with men; if he 
does not, and will not, communicate to them any help 
in their weakness, nor any guidance and comfort in 
their darkness and sorrows, then, it matters little 
what comes next to us; or what don't come at all, 
beside, for the cup of our destitution and distress 
will not hold another drop, i. e., cannot be increased. 
But, if a wise, a good and tender Creator is all about 
us by night and by day, watching, warning, helping, 
guiding and comforting us, we are not orphans, as 
before stated, not outcasts and not at all disinherited 
by our Great Father in Heaven. And that this is 
the case with us is plain, it would seem, to any sensi- 
ble and thoughtful mind.* 

* It may not appear easy at first view to make History (Bible his- 
tory) agree with this definition of conscience; as the Bible speaks of 
a good conscience, an evil conscience, a guilty conscience, a weak 
conscience, a seared conscience, etc. But if we consider that in our 
language, the effect is often put for the cause; and, if the accusa- 
tion or reproof of the spirit causes a sense of guilt, then we may 
very properly call it a guilty conscience. We may say, too, that the 
approval of God is good, or that the memory of this approval is 
pleasant or good, ?'. e., that we have a good conscience; and we 
may say that the disapproval or censure of God is unpleasant and 
forbodes evil; or, by a little play of language, is an evil conscience, 
i. e., prophesies evil. Also, as to a seared conscience, we can say 



80 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

Finally, whoever does not look upon conscience as 
the direct voice of God, or as God's agent in the soul 
(which is nearly the same thing), cannot have, it 
would seem, any clear or tolerable idea of its office or 
nature, and hence to them, conscience must be a mere 
abstraction, or thing of the fancy, and therefore can- 
not merit obedience, or be the ground of any reliable 
hope or fear. Let the reader canvass this thought 
fully and the whole tenor of the subject in the light 
of history and of common sense, and we think he 
will directly drift to the conclusion we have here so 
readily reached. At least, we must leave him to his 
thoughts respecting it, while we turn to our real pur- 
pose herein, turn to consider the " Problem of Evil," 
or the root and the sources of suffering and sorrow in 
our world. 

that men may become so accustomed to the reproofs and censure of 
the sx>irit, and have refused to obey the warnings and reproofs of God 
so often and so long that they become indifferent from sheer habit. 
Again, we may say that oar conscience is our memory of the appro- 
val or disapproval of the Divine voice in the soul; or our judgment 
concerning our safety, while God is pleased with us, or of our utter 
helplessness and poverty when he is displeased. 

Paul, in writing to Titus of a certain class of men, says "their 
mind and conscience are defiled, ,, which would indicate that even 
their memory of God's reproofs in their minds is deranged and im- 
bruted. 

Let any one, who demurs to this definition, try any other defini- 
tion of conscience, by placing it in this history, and he will readily 
observe how difficult it is to make it agree with itself and with the 
other Scriptures at the same time. And yet, with our definition, 
the meaning is plain and easily conceived by any honest heart. 



OE, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 81 

CHAPTEE V. 

NATURE INTERROGATED. 

The Problem of Pain the Study of the Ages — Plato's Statement — 
It is not the Common but the Extra Ills of Life we dread most — 
The Nobleman and the Orphans — Dire Effects of Poison, Light- 
ning-, Fire, etc., upon the Human Family. 

For many centuries, or all along the ages, as has 
already been intimated, there has been an earnest 
search made by the best and the brightest minds in 
all lands, for some cine or key to earth's dark problem 
of pain — a tireless effort to discover the reason why 
the Creator requires or permits so much suffering and 
sorrow in the hearts and homes of men, and especially 
when it touches and tortures the helpless and the in- 
nocent. And in this search, theory after theory has 
been proposed, much been said and much written; 
and what is remarkable, the learned and the unlearned 
have vied with each other in this long and wide search, 
and have been about equally successful in their efforts 
therein. Which signifies, first, the great interest all 
men have in the question in hand; and second, that 
it is taken for granted, and at once, that it is not to 
be settled or found out by, or through any mere rules 
of science or tedious laws of logic; but found, if 
found at all, as a poor but industrious miner would 
find an immense fortune, in a single deposit or nugget 



82 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

of gold, by a happy hit. Hence, very few have really 
attempted to tell in what direction, position or locality 
the long looked for prize may lie, or under what cir- 
cumstances, or appliances it may be found. There are 
a few persons, however, who are more definite, a few 
who, strange to say, assert that there is no great de- 
rangement in the physical world, and no difficulty in 
the case at all — those who affirm that they can readi- 
ly account for all the pain and suffering known among 
men. But evidently these men have never thought 
deeply and patiently on the subject, and, therefore, 
they do not realize the wildness of their affirmation. 
In other words, it really seems marvelous that thou- 
sands and millions of the keenest minds, scattered 
over every continent and island of earth, should be 
engaged to-day, as in days and years gone by, in the 
solution of this problem, if, in fact, there is no such 
problem — if, in fact, all the ways of God to man are 
so easily understood. Plato, 426 years B.C., said: 
" There is in matter a necessary but blind and refrac- 
tory force which resists the will of the Supreme Ar- 
tificer, so that he cannot perfectly execute his designs; 
and this is the cause of the mixture of good and evil 
which is found in the material world." And so, or 
similarly, believed and taught Socrates, Zeno and oth- 
ers of their age, although some of them said it was 
"the stubbornness of matter" instead of a "refrac- 
tory force," which prevented the Creator from arrang- 
ing the world as he wished. 

But however the statement has been made, the idea 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 83 

has been the same and the difficulty the same, viz., to 
reconcile the ills and pains of life with the goodness 
of the Creator. Yet, as a general* rule, men believe 
that the Creator is good, although they may not be 
able to prove that He is so — although, in fact, the 
pains and privations of life may seem to say He is 
not good. The reason for this seems to be our intui- 
tions, and also that we judge it for our interest and 
happiness that God shall be considered or believed to 
be kind and good. And in this anxiety, an attempt 
is often made to prove the goodness of the Creator, 
from the fact that we enjoy so many good things in 
life; but if the good we enjoy proves His goodness, 
then why will not the ills we suffer prove that He is 
evil? *. 0., prove that He is not good. Thus we see 
that by this method of * reasoning, we should prove 
Him both good and evil; and the reasoning seems as 
proper on the one side as on the other, and thus it 
proves too much for us — proves what seems an im- 
possibility. 

And just here we may ask again, "Why is there any 
suffering at all? Why are not all the innocent ones 
happy now? It is often claimed that if we had not 
suffered, we should not know how to enjoy; which is 
a very easy thing to say, but a difficult thing to prove. 
At least, if pain must precede all enjoyment, then at 
some time it would seem that the angels, if not the 
Creator, must have been sufferers indeed, which is 
evidently a strange notion and unworthy of notice. 
And if any of the angels have always found a happy 



84 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

canopy to live under, then why might not we have 
found such a place also; that is, why did not the Cre- 
ator place us in a condition favoring such a result? 

Again, we are told that it is the law of our physical 
nature to suffer; and, also, that if we could not suffer 
we could not enjoy, which may be true; but, asking 
the old question again, if we must suffer now in order 
to enjoy, will it ever be different? i. <?., will eternity 
be spent in a mixture of joy and suffering? If not, 
then why might we not spend time without the suf- 
fering also? Now, inasmuch as suffering follows us 
through all time, why may it not follow us through 
all eternity, for the same cause? that is, what can 
nature or reason show to the contrary? Beside, 
whether that suffering may be less than it is here, or 
manyfold greater than it is here, we cannot tell — 
these are questions which reason cannot answer. 

Again, it is not the small or common pains of life 
that we deprecate or object to most; but the special, 
the extra, occasions or items of suffering and agony 
which call out our wonder; and which (when we con- 
sider them carefully) tend to awaken our distrust, if 
not to excite our alarm. We become familiar with 
the little vexations and accidents of our journey; ac- 
customed to the storms and vicissitudes of the seasons, 
and quite hardened to the general list of cares, pains 
and privations, and therefore do not notice them 
much; but when the lightning strikes our dwelling 
and kills the loved ones we have sheltered there — 
when the fire burns up our friends, or the wild beasts 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 85 

steal and devour our children — then it is that we are 
startled, then it is that we look around us and ask, 
why is this done and why was that permitted by our 
great and unseen Father in Heaven ? 

And the more we contemplate our physical being 
and its strange and warring surroundings, the more 
bewildered we are and the less able to reconcile what 
we experience and behold with the tender and fath- 
erly goodness which we instinctively ascribe to God — 
which we fully believe our Creator possesses. Now, 
in the single fact that poisons are scattered in various 
ways and in every direction throughout nature, and 
yet that no notice, warning or intimation is known 
to have been given of them, startles us, while we re- 
flect upon it; and we are troubled to give a satis- 
factory reason for such an arrangement. 

And that we may put the case outside, or away 
from our interests as dependent creatures, and in a 
better position in respect to our instincts and intui- 
tions, let us suppose a case, viz. : Suppose a nobleman 
shall take under his care twenty orphans, and shall 
provide them a mansion — shall light, warm and 
beautify it — shall provide raiment of the richest 
character — provide horses, carriages and equipage 
of the grandest style, and furnish servants to attend 
to every want. Suppose, too, this nobleman himself 
is attentive — that he speaks to them kindly and 
smiles for them daily — that he provides them a table 
loaded with every luxury which ingenuity can invent, 
or money buy. And as additional to all this abound- 



ing benevolence, he should fill their mansion with the 
songs of the sweetest singers, and the mellow tones 
of the richest music ever drawn from costly instru- 
ments. And yet, in the midst of all this display of 
generosity and tenderness, he should (intentionally 
and knowing the consequences) leave, or allow rank 
poison to be left, in portions of their food, without 
giving the least intimation of its presence, or a word 
of intelligence of where it might be found. Suppose, 
too, that (as might be expected) a few of the children 
shall eat portions of the poison, and suffer, groan and 
die; and that others eat enough to derange their con- 
stitutions so that they only live to drag out a painful 
period of years, full of restless nights and suffering 
days. Now the question is, would we suspect his 
character? Would we pronounce his name with an 
emphasis of esteem? Would we title him good? 
Oi\ what is more in point, could we believe that 
he was good when he made these arrangements ; or 
thus consented to have these poor orphans thus in- 
jured? 

Here, it is true, is all the show of a mighty affec- 
tion and regard — the exhibition of an unlimited wish 
for the welfare of these helpless babes. But under it 
all lurks a hate and an intended destructiveness which 
shames humanity, and throws a cloud of gloomy sus- 
picion and censure over the whole. 

The costly marble and carved work of the edifice — 
the glitter of plate and the full sum of luxury — the 
toil of servants, and a full wardrobe, all appear but 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 87 

the trappings of deceit — the lure of the syren to 
to those apartments of suffering and death. 

Yes, we could see duplicity in the ornamented let- 
ters of the conspicuous sign, which declare the man- 
sion to be "an asylum for want and wretchedness" 
as well as in all the other parade of finery and of 
fullness — could hear the solemn notes of death in 
the sweetest strains of the swelling music, as well as 
in the rattle of the chariots and the click of the pol- 
ished steel upon every prancing hoof. 

No munificence could banish this dreary spectre 
from our minds, nor clear away the clouds of detesta- 
tion, suspicion and distrust; neither could the noble- 
man's bland and innocent appearance disarm our 
prejudices, nor his most winning smile stifle our con- 
demnation of his deeds. "Without some explanation — 
without some reason given, or apology proffered, 
every tongue would instinctively whisper wretch — 
wretch! wicked, barbarous man! 

And to apply this to the situation of mankind, we 
have only to notice what has already been referred to, 
namely, that poisonous herbs, plants and minerals are 
scattered over every continent of the wide world, and 
that thousands have been killed and tens of thousands 
injured thereby. It is true that many of them are 
known to us now; but how have we learned the char- 
acter of some of them? Why, simply by the death 
they have occasioned; and the bloated agony they 
have caused — by the hollow groans and dying strug- 
gles of some of our fellows, if not of our friends. 



88 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

An apothecary is commanded by law to write poi- 
son upon every parcel of poisonous drug in his shop, 
or sent out of it, under the threatening of a painful 
penalty; but the world is sprinkled over with parcels 
of poison, without a dot or a line by which they may 
be distinguished by nine-tenths of mankind. 

And inasmuch as many children have been injured 
or entirely ruined by it, the watchfulness of the 
mother is ever kept awake to prevent the child or the 
children of her affection from swallowing some one 
of these destroying agents. And yet all this vigi- 
lance often avails nothing; for the dreaded agency 
is somewhere unexpectedly present, and the flower of 
her love sleeps the sleep of the winding sheet, and all 
her cherished hopes are cut off at a blow. 

And what is more, we find the watchword in every 
land, to every individual finding any new herb or 
mineral, " Handle with care and eat not until its 
qualities are tested. 5 ' And yet after all the knowledge 
which is abroad, and the extreme caution practiced 
among those who use and handle these poisons, fatal 
effects are often experienced. Indeed, even some of 
the best informed and most cautious chemists have 
been destroyed while using or handling poisons found 
in nature. ]Now, upon what rule of justice or under 
what mode of goodness can we explain this single 
arrangement in creation? It will not help us to say 
that poisons are needful as a medicine, unless we can 
tell why men are sick; nor will it relieve the case to 
say that poisons are in any way necessary to the 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 89 

human constitution, unless we can explain why they 
are thus necessary in the arrangement of our earthly 
surroundings. But, poisons are only one among 
many of the agencies which seem to be watching and 
waiting for their prey. Fire has done the human 
family more harm than poison, and yet it seems to be 
indispensable to society, if not to life itself. But, 
although it is a very needful and necessary servant, 
yet it is a terrible, terrible, master indeed. We can- 
not well do without it, and yet cafmot possibly, al- 
ways, control it. Hence it is simply a " caged tiger," 
which a very little change in our surroundings un- 
cages upon us and upon our dear ones. 

Look at that poor man at forty, poking in the embers 
of his house for the bones of his children, or search- 
ng among the blazing, mocking brands of his man- 
sion for the remains of his dear, dear wife. With a 
heart as lonely as the desert and with woe too deep 
by far, for tears, see him work on and on, a pic- 
ture of agony and desolation itself. But mark, the 
flames were not kindled by fire from within his 
dwelling, but by that from without — from above — 
by fire sent to him from the sky. Yes, in his absence 
a black and angry thunder cloud gathered over his 
home; and his treasures, the careful gatherings of 
years, were touched by the lightning's blazing finger, 
and swept away in an hour. We are told that he 
should have provided his house with lightning rods, 
and thus saved his dwelling. But lightning rods are 
only a partial protection at best, since dwellings are 



90 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

often struck by lightning which have rods upon them. 
And then, how many thousand dwellings were struck 
and burned before the invention of lightning rods; 
and how many thousands of stacks of hay and grain 
are now annually burned, with the country full of 
this invention? Thus, after all the care taken and 
the expense incurred for protection against this de- 
structive agent, an immense amount of harm is done, 
not only to property, but to person and to life. For, 
the lightning finds man not only in his house and 
barn, but in his field and on the highway — in the 
valley and on the hill — everywhere. No one can 
tell where it will visit, nor when. And the question 
is, Why does the Creator thus allow this agent to so 
harm and distress man? Some tell us that the light- 
ning was made to purify the atmosphere, and hence 
is a blessing. But why is the atmosphere impure ? i. 
e., how came it to be impure? Did God make it so, 
and then take this alarming method to improve it? 

Again, suppose we may protect ourselves from most 
of the effects of lightning, what then? In other 
words, if you dodge a javelin which I throw at you, so 
that you escape unhurt, will your escape relieve me 
from the charge of evil mindedness, if you know that 
I have thrown the javelin at you? If it will not, then 
we need some explanation of this matter. For, dread- 
ful work is yearly being done by this agent and after 
all, the atmosphere is impure and hundreds are made 
sick and suffer and die in consequence. So that the 
explanation given, really amounts to nothing, unless 



OB, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 91 

it is to increase our difficult}', rather than to obviate 
it, by calling our attention to the dire defects of the 
atmosphere, which had escaped our special notice be- 
fore. But, whether our difficulty in this respect is 
or is not thus increased, it seems plain that no human 
mind can give a reason for the impurity of the atmos- 
phere, through or by any light found in nature. Yet 
we believe there is a reason, and a good reason there- 
for, and join quite largely in the sentiment of Pope, 
when he says, referring to order in nature : 

" Cease then, nor order imperfection name: 
Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. 
Know thy own point; this kind, this due degree 
Of blindness, weakness, Heav'n bestows on thee. 
Submit. In this, or any other sphere, 
Secure to be as blest as thou canst bear; 
Safe in the hand of one disposing- power, 
Or in the natal, or the mortal hour. 
All nature is but art, unknown to thee; 
All chance, direction, which thou canst not see; 
All discord, harmony not understood; 
All partial evil, universal good; 
And spite of Pride, in erring Reason's spite, 
One truth is clear — whatever is, is right." 

Xot that everything is right; but that, what God 
has done in or for us, or in or for the world, is eight. 



92 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 



CHAPTEK YI. 

THE INTERROGATION OF NATURE. 

(continued.) 

The further Reading of Nature's Book — It gives a False and very 
Unworthy Idea of God — Law is not the "Workman, but the Rule 
by which the Workman Works — Three of the Laws in Nature 
have a War and produce Pain and Death — They snap their 
Fingers in the Face of Courts and laugh at Prison Bars — Thomas 
Paine and Bolinbroke's Bible — John N. Maffit's Statement — 
Man's Body and Mind both badly Out of Order — Description 
of a Battle. 

But, perhaps, by this time, the reader has heard 
enough of this book we have been glancing at — this 
" glorious book of nature," as a certain skeptic called 
it, and what Thomas Paine called " The only true and 
real word of God." Yet while we have this book in 
hand, it may be well to read a few pages more out of it. 
For, perhaps, most men are aware that the Bible has 
been stigmatized and blamed as a bloody, barbarous 
book — has been censured and scoffed at because it 
represents God as countenancing and doing certain 
judicial acts — acts which these opposers claim are 
" unworthy of a good being," and hence " unworthy 
of God " — " cruel — bloody — base," etc. And now 
upon this same criticism we propose to found an ar- 
gument against the book of nature — propose to prove 
that it gives us a false and very unworthy idea of the 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 93 

character of our kind Creator; and that hence it can- 
not be our oracle. If we succeed in proving this, 
which we think we can easily, then it will be time to 
lay the book of nature away with the almanac, as we 
have essayed to do with the Bible, and what book we 
may take next is very uncertain, surely, for our li- 
brary will then be entirely exhausted. Probably we 
shall choose to read these books over again — to read 
them together. Well, they are surely a mutual key 
to each other, and especially is the Bible a key to the 
book of nature. But, for the present, let us attend to 
our reading. Every other thing, with some men, seems 
to lead them to loud laudations of nature's laws, and 
you would almost think from what they say that law 
is something intelligent — something that can think, 
contrive and work. And, in fact, it would be con- 
venient, if when some of the Creator's laws in nature 
represent him as stern and cruel (if not revengeful 
and vindictive) we could make a scapegoat of " nature's 
laws " and thus send the perplexity, on our hands, to 
the land of forgetfulness. For, we would thus make 
a great saving of time and trouble. But some how 
the difficulty will not be dismissed — will not leave 
us, and simply because the idea, that law of itself has 
neither power nor character, continually binds it to 
us — continually informs us that we cannot possibly 
exonerate the workman and blame the law. Hence 
we must look upon nature's laws, as God's laws in 
nature; or simply the rule by which he operates in 
nature, whatever the results of that operation may be. 



94 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

And now let us take three laws as we find them in 
nature: 1. The law that when our bones are broken 
and our flesh torn we suffer pain. 2. The law of self 
protection, which requires some sort of shelter either 
from the elements or the animals, or from both; and, 
3. The law that when there is more heat in one place 
than in another, the wind, tempest, or tornado is pro- 
duced. 

!Now, when the tornado takes up my house, and 
sunders and shuffles the parts together until I and my 
family are all injured, more or less; when some are 
killed, some have bones broken, and some have their 
flesh torn; the question is, Who is in fault — who is 
to blame? We often hear men tell about our being 
sick, and of our suffering because we have broken na- 
ture's laws, which is often true in part; but here you 
see the laws did their own breaking — had a little 
Punic war of their own, and this destruction of prop- 
erty, with this death and suffering, is the result. 
And now, while I look upon my little infant son, 
writhing in his agony, with a gashed face, a bruised 
head, a broken thigh, and a shattered collar bone, 
what explanation shall I contrive — what apology can 
I invent? All the forces worked independent of me, 
and in spite of me, and they worked at a time, and in 
a place and way which I could not forsee, or ascertain. 
If I had purposely shaken my house down upon my 
family, killing some and bruising others of them, the 
penitentiary would be considered a fit place for me, 
but here are agents which snap their fingers in the 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 95 

face of courts and juries, and wink derisively at walls 
of stone, bars of brass, and bolts of steel — agents 
which seem to defy justice and humanity, and to 
mock at all and every restraint whatever. And yet it 
is only the seeming, for these agents are perfectly 
inert and irresponsible — are simply tools in the hand 
of another. And this dreaded question, among a mul- 
titude of questions, is, why has God thus arranged 
these laws? They certainly did not arrange themselves, 
it is insanity to think they did; God must have ar- 
ranged them, and hence the very great importance of 
the question; for there seems to be either a want of 
power in God, or else a want of goodness to make the 
arrangement better — to make it what it might be — 
to make it just. And if there is really a want of 
either of these in the Creator, then the out- look of the 
future, to us, is anything but promising or hopeful. 
And yet, added to all this (strange as the assertion 
may seem), we find the same appearance, whichever 
way we look, in all the realm of nature — the appear- 
ance that the Creator is at times angry with every 
living thing of earth — the appearance that he has 
put us into this crucible of change and commotion to 
waste and destroy us; and yet nature gives us no inti- 
mation of, or clue to the cause why he is wroth. It 
seems to say, or take for granted, that something is 
wrong; but what it is, and how it may be set right, is 
not found in Tom Paine, or Bolingbroke's bible, " Na- 
ture;" and yet the wrangling goes on; for the wind 
goes crashing through the forest, and bears away 



96 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

dwellings and their inmates; destroys grain and fruit, 
and throws down trees and other objects upon man 
and beast. In other places it shakes the ocean and 
smaller waters as though in a frenzy of rage, and by 
the napping of its wings, aided by the rush and heav- 
ing of the angry surge, it dashes the noble vessel upon 
the shoals, or rocks, of some barbarous coast, or buries 
it low in the bosom of the deep, with much of treas- 
ure, much of precious life.* 

And then think of other agents and elements which 
work death to man; think of the pestilences and dis- 
eases which walk, or wing the air of every continent 
and clime of the known world, mowing down multi- 

* Often when the vessel does not go to pieces on the reefs or 
ragged rocks, nor find a grave in the bosom of the deep, with sharks 
and sea-serpents, yet much damage is done to the ship and to her 
lading, if in fact the lading is not of necessity cast overboard and 
lost. 

Truly, a storm at sea is a wild scene — a terrible sight indeed, and 
difficult of description. Yet were we to attempt a sketch of such a 
scene, it would be one that occurred off the coast of Mexico, making 
the stoutest sailors quake with dread. It was on the evening of a 
beautiful day of August, 1864. For hours the ocean and the wind 
had been lying hushed and silent. Neptune seemed asleep. But 
suddenly a cloud pushed itself into sight, and the deep wail of the 
wind, or the wild shriek of the coming storm, "like the battle cry of 
fiends, was heard in the air, while the sails and the sea quivered in 
the sound. The commands of the captain became rapid, clear and 
loud, and indicated imminent and immediate danger. Each sailor 
flew like an arrow to his work, and soon every line was bound, and 
every sail furled. But not a moment too soon, for just as the noble 
ship and the trusty tars stood ready, waiting the shock, the storm 
broke over us in indescribable terror and might, and for a time our 
utter destruction seemed inevitable — our grave, in those gaping 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 97 

tudes of men and women of all ages, classes and con- 
ditions possible; thus making desolate hearths, help- 
less orphanage, and lonely and distressed widow- 
hood. 

Think of the drifting sands of the desert entomb- 
ing the travelers and their camels, with all their 
effects, while even the needful rain falls, at times, in 
various places, in such quantity as to drench the 
ground, injure the crops, and raise the streams until 
they bear away bridges, buildings, and other property 
of vast value. 

gulfs, a dreadful certainty. 0, how weak and helpless then seemed 
human hands, and how unfeeling- and fiendish the savage powers 
by which we were grasped and held. 

But soon and most grandly the old ship, creaking and groaning 
in every part, righted again, though it yet pitched, rocked, rose and 
fell, as the great and angry ridges lifted and lashed it. 

It was truly a wild and mad hour with the elements there congre- 
gated; and thunder bellowed to thunder in deafening and terrific 
tones, while the lightnings (dancing around us) crossed and recrossed 
their frantic and frightful tongues of flame. The ocean boiled like 
a pot, and the fierce waves and angry clouds seemed bound together 
with bands of electricity and blazing links of fire; while the little 
intervals of darkness appeared the essence of a hundred nights 
pressed into one v In tins terrible strife in nature — this wonderful 
rash and roar of wind and water, the loudest human voice was the 
same as a whisper, and the trumpet sounded in vain; hence every 
man was his own captain while this noisy and frantic fit of nature 
lasted, for all command of man and vessel was lost in the wild howl 
of the storm. But we rode it out, and thus live to tell the events of 
that awful hour. The deck of our vessel, however, after the storm 
abated, reminded us of a certain representation of Purgatory, i. e., 
" A place where nature had a frolic, and when she got through for- 
got to put things in order." 
7 



98 

Some may think we here overrate the calamities and 
dangers to which man is exposed in his earthly jour- 
ney; but just take a rapid and yet considerate survey 
of the world, and this will not appear overrated in 
the least, but the contrary. Why, think of man's ig- 
norant and helpless infancy and exposure — think of 
the multitude of diseases which haunt his early path, 
and the dangers and accidents through which he must 
pass, to arrive at manhood. Think of poisons scat- 
tered everywhere — of venomous serpents and reptiles 
— of hungry, ravenous beasts, thirsting for his blood, 
threatening his life, breaking his bones, tearing his 
flesh, and stealing his food, and often his children. 
See the earth open its jaws and swallow up man and 
beast, or in the convulsive struggle of its inner ele- 
ments, shaking down his tenements and his temples, 
burying him and his in one vast ruin. 

Then observe earth's pitfalls and take a glance at 
her caverns, volcanoes, falling-rocks and land-slides; 
notice the effects of sterility, blight, mildew, noxious 
vapors, falling trees and tumbling timbers and towers ; 
see the lightning darting in every direction, the pes- 
tilence stealing over land and water, and the hurricane 
sweeping madly by, and through what a battle ground 
of danger does the path of man appear to lead, from 
his infant cot to his pillow in his coffin home? Hence 
it is not strange that so few die of old age; but the 
marvel is how any man succeeds in timely obeying a 
score of alarms like the following, viz., " beware" 
" hurry" "stand from under" "out-of-the-way- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 99 

there," etc., so as to escape with life, until his body 
sinks under the weight of years. 

John Newland Maffit once, very mournfully and 
yet eloquently, said of man, touching this subject: 
"Walking through the strong elements, each with 
power to master and destroy him, man is the discon- 
solate orphan of Creation. His Heavenly Father 
cannot be seen by his natural eye. He needs a shel- 
ter from the rain, from the dew and the sunshine." 
All of which is wonderfully true; and would be as 
dreary as true, if there were no relieving lights on the 
picture, no plain assurance of the faithful watch-care 
of God over us, and the protection of his pitying 
providence around us. But, besides all that we have 
said, if we consider man himself, we see that one ap- 
pears upon the stage without hands; another without 
eyes, and another without feet. Some have too many 
parts; some have too few; some are precocious, and 
early waste away and die, while others are born idiots 
and hang upon the hands of the toiling parents a 
troublesome and an increasing weight. Thus man's 
body indicates that all is not right; indicates that 
there has been some derangement since his creation, 
or else some radical fault in his original constitution. 
But his mind seems more out of order than his body, 
and compares well with a fallen city in the nobleness 
of its ruins. Endowed with astonishing abilities, yet 
prone to folly; full of invention, activity and daring, 
yet exceedingly liable to misdo, misjudge and forget; 
with eyes formed to look upward toward heaven, and 



100 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL J 

yet continually and strangely inclined to look down- 
ward toward earth; inclined to forget the future in 
the cares and plans of the present. 

His passions, too, are all out of order; are in a tu- 
mult of trouble, and often break out in reproaches, 
slander and war. Hence, the record of the race is a 
record of disputing and discord; a record of strife 
and blood. And whoever reads history must read of 
contentions, bitterness, cursing and carnage; for the 
history of the world is largely and necessarily made 
up of references to the bickerings and battles of kings 
and kingdoms, and the revolutions, ruins and recitals 
of war. And now, that beings so wonderfully made 
and so richly endowed, as men are (both as to their 
bodies and their intellects), so surrounded by enemies 
and dangers in the physical world, and so dependent 
upon each other withal, shall yet seek to harm, dis- 
tress or destroy each other, seems a strange fact — 
seems a picture of blind madness, indeed, or of an 
incurable and hopeless insanity. 

And yet, as we have intimated, war is one of the 
arts, and human butchery seems to have been one of 
the industries or trades of the race. For the world 
is specked over with hard-fought battle grounds ; with 
fields dyed red with blood, or whitened by the bones 
of slaughtered warriors. A battle! why, the very 
word weeps in the eye of imagination^ and a terror 
steals over the heart, as reflection recounts and dwells 
upon the details of such a sad scene. To think of 
thousands upon thousands of frail and weak men 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 10.1 

planning to kill or to mangle and mutilate each other; 
thousands upon thousands, armed with every imple- 
ment of death possible for human ingenuity to in- 
vent, throwing themselves against each other in terri- 
ble and bloody strife, is a thing to believe when you 
cannot avoid it; a thing to credit when you absolute 
ly must do so. 

Just suppose a being from some pure sphere, unac- 
quainted with man, and that knew nothing, as he 
supposed, of their Creator, looking over the battle and 
carnage of Waterloo — glancing a surprised eye at 
Napoleon, and turning a wondering gaze on Welling- 
ton — and what do you think he would say ? or rather, 
what idea do you think he must have of such beings, 
and of their Creator? Could he possibly imagine 
that either could be good; i. 0., would it not be easy 
for him to believe that they all belonged to the depart- 
ment of demons? The observing and gifted Fletcher 
tried his pen upon such a scene with his usual clear- 
ness and success. It is a word-picture of a battle in 
a city, which condensed, i. e., giving you the ideas 
and a few of the words will read as follows: "The 
noisy drum and the alarm guns tell of the coming 
conflict; and the thundering cannons tell that it has 
begun. Hark! swords are clashing, chariots and 
armor rattling, cannons roaring, drums beating, the 
wounded groaning, foes cursing, the vanquished 
shrieking, victors shouting and trampling the dead 
and dying under their feet. Blood flows in torrents, 
and man mangles, mutilates and kills his fellow man. 



102 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

Fire, too, is doing a fearful part in this dreadful 
work ; and its flames are spreading in every direction, 
melting down the walls of wealth and castles of com- 
fort, as well as the halls of science and the altars of 
devotion, thus adding to the carnage of the conflict; 
the danger of fire, explosions, and the fall of burning 
materials; and to its tumult, the roar of the flames, the 
crash of falling walls and timbers, together with the 
bursting of combustible matter. "What a scene! 
What a havoc of life and of treasure! What is the 
cause of this strife, and who is the maker of such 
being? Can it be that he is good!! " 

But another scene is wedded to this. A scene of 
solemn grief, if not of outbreaking agony. Many 
husbands and sons are dead; and a thousand homes 
are desolate; thousands of children are left fatherless, 
and scores of widows left to toil early and late to save 
their helpless charge from beggary or starvation. 
And what is worse still, some of these unfortunate 
mothers sink into the grave under the weight of be- 
reavement, while others go crazy and wander the high- 
ways, the waste, or the wilderness, in search of their 
lost ones; or else to whisper in the ear of darkness 
and solitude their words of distress. And the chil- 
dren, where are they? Poor orphans, or worse than 
orphans. Some of them are cared for, while others 
die of want, weeping and neglect. Alas! what a 
river of tears washes the foot-prints of every campaign. 
How gloomy the recital of the ravages of war — how 
painful and dreamy the reality. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 103 

But often man is not only the foe of his fellow 
men, but the torment and terror of even the domestic 
animals given him for servants. Some he teases and 
tortures, some he mercilessly loads and whips, some 
he starves and kills. The picture is a sad one, and 
the poet Tupper, in looking it over, exclaims: 

"God! God! Thy whole creation groans, 
Thy fair world writhes in pain; 
Shall the dread incense of its moans 
Arise to thee in vain? 

cruel world! sickening' fear 

Of goad, or knife, or thong; 
load of evils ill to bear! 

How long, good God, how long?" 

And yet, with the present constitution and sur- 
roundings of man; that is, with the present 
moral condition of the human heart, together with 
the necessity of labor and care for clothing and bread, 
and the demands of pride and the passions so 
common to our kind, the poor beasts will be likely to 
suffer on, and the avoidance of war among men seems 
improbable, if not impossible. In other words, to 
differ in opinion, interest and inclination is common 
to man, and seems as natural, if not as necessary, as 
their breathing. Children differ and contend for 
their choice of the little toys, or trifles placed within 
their reach at an early day in their history. And 
there must be some reason for this within them, it 
being impossible that it should come from without in 
any manner whatever. And this reason will account 



104: THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

for Bunker Hill, "Waterloo and Gettysburg — will give 
us a key to a thousand scenes in human history, if not 
to the whole history of moral evil. Do you say that 
the key is in the " Fall of man," or the " Sin of the 
Garden?" That will do for a theory; but what is 
theory without proof? And how will you prove it 
without a Bible? And you will remember that we 
have no such book now. That book is under a bold 
or brazen interdiction — laid on the shelf — locked 
out of the argument. We have the full use of this great 
book of nature, and by a careful reading thereof we 
ought soon to be wise, provided what we have been 
told about it be true; and if we have been misinformed 
we ought to know it now. General history would be 
a great help, or indeed it would be an immense light 
if we could only make it available. And whether we 
can or not, we will consider in our next chapter. 



OR, THEOEY AND THEOLOGY. 105 

CHAPTER YII. 

THE BIBLE AS A HISTORY AND A LIGHT. 

Reliability of General History — The Bible as a History — Its Relia- 
bility and Evident Honesty. — Nature cannot Account for its 
own Contentions — Birds, Worms and Insects Fight — The Bro- 
ken Watch and the Smitten Forest. Some of the Animals 
seem to be made to tear, kill and destroy. 

That general history has been highly valued by the 
best minds during many centuries, and that it is now 
relied upon with a great amount of confidence, no one 
at all acquainted with the facts will be willing to deny. 
Yet, after a little careful thinking, quite probably all 
will see that whoever denies the reliability and truth- 
fulness of the Bible record, must, in this denial, sadly 
cloud if not entirely eclipse the whole history of the an- 
cient days. But whether they see it or not, that is the 
tendency of this denial. And the reasons for this 
tendency are brief and plain. And, 1st. The Bible 
history is the root and foundation of all reliable his- 
tory known among men ; 2d, it has as much — rather 
has more — claim to careful truth and honesty, than 
any other history in existence; 3d, it is all the history 
we have of the first two thousand years from the crea- 
tion of man, that is worthy of any confidence — all in 
fact that can be of any use or aid touching the ques- 
tions we now have in hand. Hence, to deny the 



106 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

truthfulness of the Bible history is to invalidate and 
blacken all ancient history together. For, if one is 
reliable the other is, and if the Bible history is false, 
profane history cannot be true — cannot be relied 
upon at all. Therefore if Jesus, John and James did 
not do and say what is recorded as their words and 
deeds, then we have no reason to believe that Romu- 
lus, Cato or Alexander once lived and acted a part 
among men. 

Hence, the absolute folly of Thomas Paine (and his 
like) stares us full in the face when they mention the 
consistency and personality of Job ; or refer to Noah, 
Moses, Joshua, David, Saul and Solomon, as well as 
when they speak of Matthew, Peter and the other 
disciples. Or, when they speak of any other persons 
who are the subjects of history, whether that history 
be profane or religious. For, if the oldest and best 
authenticated history of all the list was scoffed at and 
denied by them, they might with equal propriety 
have referred their readers to the fictitious account of 
Gulliver's visit to the moon with his trained geese, 
for names, dates, events and circumstances, as to refer 
to names and events mentioned in the history of the 
ages and years long since gone by. Indeed, their 
manner of treating history would leave us to surmise 
whether the repute 1 doings of Xerxes, Plato, Alex- 
ander, Csesar and thousands of others, may not be the 
fabulous actions of fabulous actors. For, who knows 
that such men ha e lived? Who knows what has 
been, or when the present order of earthly things 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 107 

began, if the Bible history cannot be readily relied 
upon? 

Therefore, whoever rejects the Bible, as a truthful 
history, will, to be consistent, reject all ancient his- 
tory with it. Again, whatever profane history may 
say respecting the fall of man, or of any disability on 
the part of man in consequence of that fall, is only 
so much Bible history; all of it having been taken 
from the Bible record. Hence, while the Bible is re- 
jected, profane history cannot account for the con- 
tending, warring and wicked propensities so wonder- 
fully manifest among men, by any reference to a lapse 
of the race in any ancient time. And certainly there 
has been no lapse of mankind within our personal 
knowledge. So here we are again back to this great 
book of nature, and this utterly refuses to account 
for the war which is raging in the physical world, 
and for the contentions and bloodshed among men, 
unless it be in an intimation that God made them so 
in the beginning by express intent. And this thought 
is supplemented and corroborated by the fact that 
the brutes manifest this same spirit of contention, 
and wrangle, worry and devour each other through all 
their tribes. The weaker are the oppressed, or the 
prey of the stronger; from the mole to the lion on 
the land, and from the minnow to the whale in the 
sea. 

Even the beautiful and tinny birds light each other, 
and little worms and insects contend and war, like 
men, i. e., have their differing and punic periods, 



108 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL J 

their destroying and devouring days, hours, or in- 
tervals. 

In fact, by a little analogy, we draw from even the 
inert objects and elements of earth, not the heathen 
idea (i. e., the result of their thought on this subject, 
which was that there were two deities, one good and 
one evil, as before stated) ; but the idea, that the 
Creator has fits of passion like man ; and that in these 
fits of anger he destroys and wastes his own work, 
just as some men do. 

For instance, we chance to see a goldsmith hand- 
ling, or looking over a watch he has made, and di- 
rectly we see him strike it with his hammer and 
break it into hundreds of pieces. But in a little time, 
he commences to melt the pieces, and to construct 
another watch out of that material. We perhaps feel 
sorry he was so foolish as to ruin his watch ; but we 
put the blame where it belongs, that is, Ave blame 
him, and not some one else. And even though,. at 
the time he spoiled the watch, he may have been in- 
sulted, tempted, or troubled by some one, still we 
blame him. Yes, although we believe the act was 
prompted by a bad heart; that is, by wicked and evil 
elements in his spiritual organization, still we blame 
him only. In other words, we don't believe he is 
just right, or evenly balanced in his moral nature, 
whatever his physical appearance may be, or however 
many good and neighborly deeds he may have done. 
And now if, while riding in the country, and con- 
templating this affair of the goldsmith and his watch, 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 109 

we should chance to pass a young forest growing up 
on the ruins of a tornado which swept over the spot 
years before, the similarity of the two scenes might 
strike us as remarkable — might institute the query 
whether the two actors really were not something 
alike in their manner of treating the work of their 
hands, and whether,, in fact, the destruction witnes- 
sed did not originate in a similar mental and moral 
condition. This is a terrible thought, to be sure, and 
seems almost like blasphemy; but still as long as we 
have no Bible to tell us about blasphemy, and as long 
as we are doing our best to wring out of this witness, 
Xature, "the whole truth and nothing but the 
truth " (as far as she can tell it), and as long as it is 
the witness that says these terrible things about the 
Creator, and not ourselves, we will not tremble at re- 
sults, and especially while we intend to impeach our 
witness in the end. And, by the way, this little com- 
parison of events shows us what an uncertain, if not 
dangerous thread analogy is to trust, in things so far 
above us. For, you will notice, that here we have 
two analogies which meet and combine in this case: 
ist, (Man being the production of God), analogy 
would say that like would produce its like, in many 
respects at least; and, 2d, The analogy of the two 
events makes a very strong case of analogy. And yet, 
we instantly and instinctively reject the inferences 
which these analogies would make, and claim to know 
much better, even without a Bible. And so we do: 
and the idea of the heathen, before mentioned (that 



110 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

there are two gods, one good and the other evil), 
plainly shows us that they did not readily believe that 
God is evil, and also that they had a teacher which is 
very far superior to nature. A teacher, too, which 
contradicts the apparent testimony of nature in the 
plainest words possible. 

The reader may recollect, too, what was stated a 
few pages back, touching this point; namely, that if 
because we find many good things in nature, there- 
fore, we should conclude that the Creator is good, 
then for the same reason, because we find many evil 
things in nature, we should conclude that he is evil; 
which leaves us to either infer that God is a com- 
pound of good and evil (as before), or else that nature 
gives us no true idea of his character at all. For 
surely he cannot be good and not good at the same 
time. ~No, that is impossible. For, if the following 
strange couplet, 

" To good and evil equal bent, 
He's both a devil and a saint, 1 ' 

will apply to man in any fair sense, it cannot apply 
to the unchangeable God. Again, if a stained paper, 
a streaked, specked or spotted paper is not a white 
paper, if to be really white it must be pure, virgin 
white, without any specks, spots or stains, then to be 
really and truly good must signify the absence of all 
evil — must signify absolute and perfect goodness. 
Hence, if nature testifies that the Creator has the 
least evil in his nature, it testifies that he is evil and 
not good at all. Properly, we don't say a man is good 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. Ill 

because he does more good acts than evil ones ; nor 
good because he does ten good acts to two evil acts; 
but good when he does no evil acts at all; i. <?., no in- 
tentionally wrong acts. Then, if there is the least 
injustice, or oppression manifest in nature, if there is 
pain and privation without cause, we need, and must 
have, some other light than that of nature to banish 
our fears and to reassure us. And that nature is full 
of scenes of sorrow and suffering where no cause is 
apparent (by her own light at least) is not to be de- 
nied — is plain to any one witli half an eye. Why, j ust 
think of the maternal pains and agony, even death 
often, in the travail of beasts as well as of man; and 
what explanation can nature give? Of course she 
points you to certain laws, and those laws point di- 
rectly to God. And there the inquiry stops, and just 
there the moral bearings must remain; that is, so far 
as nature can show. In fact, even when we take the 
best lights — all the lights which God has given to 
mortals, there are circumstances of suffering, fear and 
bereavement, among men and brutes, which are still 
in the dark — which defy all attempts at explanation. 
It may seem out of place to call attention to what is 
indeed a trivial and very common matter; but just 
think of a rabbit which is chased and overtaken by a 
panther, and yet escapes wounded, bleeding and torn 
to its burrow. It has no one to bring it food or to 
dress its wounds, no one to do it a favor. It suffers 
intensely, and yet it does not die, but at length crawls 
out to get a morsel to eat and a little dew to drink. 



112 THE PROBLEM OF EYIL ; 

It finally recovers its strength, but is a cripple for 
life. Now, why all this suffering? Or, rather, why 
any suffering at all among animals so innocent and 
tiny? "Why any disposition in the panther to injure 
or eat the rabbit, or to injure any other animal what- 
ever? "Why any disposition in any of the animals to 
disturb or destroy each other? And yet the panther 
appears to be simply acting out the nature God gave 
its progenitors, which nature has been handed down 
to it without its wish, knowledge or effort — been per- 
petuated as well as produced by an act of pure sover- 
eignty. It seems, too, that the upper and nether mill 
stones are no better fitted and arranged to grind the 
grain which shall be placed between them, than the 
panther is fitted to injure and eat the rabbit, the kid 
or the lamb. And so of any and all beasts, birds or 
fishes which subsist on prey, just as though they were, 
every way, made up and constituted with the express 
intention that they should tear and devour as the busi- 
ness of their lives. And if we have read the lessons 
of the rocks aright — if geology, as now understood, is 
not an amusing fiction — if it has a single sober word 
of truth to say to us, then this disposition to " kill 
and eat," or to eat before killing, is no recent endow- 
ment, no new arrangement; but a law that was old 
when Adam was young. 

These thoughts seem rebellious — seem like a riot- 
ing and restless crew ready to mutinize; but still they 
stand out in bold letters in this book of nature, to be 
read or omitted, according to the taste or supersti- 



OK, THEORY AXD THEOLOGY. 113 

tion of the reader. And to omit them does not, of 
course, blot them from the book, nor alter the rela- 
tion they sustain to the hopes or fears of mankind. 
We know, too, that they involve hard and grave ques- 
tions for such minds as ours — questions not easily 
answered even with the help of any book or books, 
or by any wit or wisdom, within the reach of man. 
Surely, then, poor, blind and contradictory nature can- 
not point the way out of this wilderness of doubt, nor 
light the torch of hope for the human heart, thus be- 
nighted and wandering on the warring waste of time. 
Therefore it will be by a better pilot than this, if the 
bark of human hope shall ever cross this sea of con- 
flicting data, and reach the harbor of assurance and 
repose. Yes, yes, absolutely, we must have some bet- 
ter light than nature, or doubt is our master, and 
despair our doom. And the reader may, perhaps, see 
by this time that the human family must have always 
had some operating agency of wisdom and persuasion 
around and with it, which has been moulding and 
controling its thoughts and beliefs — some agency, 
too, higher, wiser, and with a voice clearer and plainer 
than nature can by any possibility be, or that utter 
infidelity would have, long since, had the supreme 
control of all minds — would have had a universal reign. 
Again, it is a wonder, indeed, and a wonder of a pecu- 
liar kind, sui generis, that men, and wise men, too, 
who from age to age have thought that because much 
of happiness comes to us from certain arrangements 
in nature, therefore God is good, should have failed 
8 



114 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL ; 

to have seen, or seeing, should have failed to have 
stated, that the unhappiness which comes to us from 
the same quarter, is equal proof that God is not good, 
unless some explanation can be given for the permission 
of the unhappiness.* That is, allowing that all comes 
alike from him, the proof for the one is as plain and 
reliable as the proof for the other. And we leave the 
Bible rejectors, the bold and boasting adorers of na- 
ture, to work out this problem, to tell us how to recon- 
cile this proof, and to show us what we may expect 
after death, if indeed we may expect anything. 

" Mount contemplation's wings, 
And mark the causes and the end of things; 
Learn what we are, and for what purpose born, 
What station here 'tis given us to adorn; 
How best to blend security with ease, 
And win our way through life's tempestuous seas." 

— GlFFORD. 

* A few men at different periods, have seemed to glance over this 
ground, in a sort of common sense way, but to have made less use 
of the lesson thus learned, than was proper and profitable; or else, 
like the poor unbeliever Hume, to have made the facts thus collect- 
ed serve to rid the mind of man of correct ideas concerning the Cre- 
ator and Governor of this sorrowing and mysterious world. 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 115 

CHAPTEE VIII. 

THE BIBLE AS A LIGHT AND A GUIDE. 

Nature fails to explain either Man or his Surroundings — The King 
of Siam and the Freezing of Water — The Infidel convinced and 
converted. 

In the previous chapters, as the reader knows, we 
have wandered through the walks and wastes of na- 
ture, studying her laws, observing her phenomena, 
and endeavoring to read the lessons of truth she would 
teach us ; or, rather, perhaps, endeavoring to learn the 
limit of her skill in solving the problem of earthly 
sorrow and disorder, and in showing what the fate, or 
future of the soul may be when the gates of death are 
passed. That is, what nature can tell us apart from, 
and independent of, revelation. The result of this our 
endeavor, we need not inform the reader of here; un- 
less our turning to the sacred volume may signify that 
the liofht we need so much is not found in the book 
of nature. 

A few pages back, reference was made to the Bible 
simply as a history, and a comparison was instituted 
between it and the general history of the world since 
man was created. And this comparison resulted in 
the full and very reasonable conclusion that if any 
history is worthy of our faith and confidence — if any 
history has any claim to the belief and trust of man- 



116 

kind, the Bible history is that history. And also, that 
if the Bible has not such a claim, then all history is a 
costly failure — a magnificent fiction. And we propose 
to show directly, that if the Bible can be relied upon 
as a history; that is, if its sentences are sentences of 
truth, then it is and must be all that Christians claim 
for it, " an inspired book," and a proper " rule of faith 
and practice." 

We do not mean that if a part of the Bible is true, 
and a part of it false, we will prove its inspiration; 
but if it, or the original manuscripts from which it 
was translated, can be relied upon as truth, then we 
will prove its inspiration, and prove it by the Bible 
itself. 

We put this proposition in this form for two rea- 
sons: firsts because what we propose to do is not a 
difficult task; and second, because it is quite common 
for those who reject the Bible as the word of God and 
as a rule of faith, to call it a good history. The truth 
really is, however, that such persons simply credit any 
little portion of the Bible (be it less or more) which 
does not directly disagree with their system of unbe- 
lief, and then scoff at the balance. Hence, different 
systems of infidelity will credit and reject different 
portions of the Bible, just as fancy or prejudice may 
dictate. But this is not accepting it as a history at 
all. This, in fact, is denying its reliability as a rec- 
ord of events. For if what it records as having been 
the faith, sayings and acts of men, or the words and 
doings of God, are false in their important particulars, 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 117 

and can be proven so, then the whole book must fall 
under the ban of distrust, and can be proven false by 
the same testimony. And as before stated, with the 
Bible history all ancient history stands or falls. If 
true, we have some idea of what has been; and if 
false, the ages past are one vast blank, and the great 
records of time a worthless pile of rubbish. But the 
paintings, sculpture, coins, ruins of cities, and many 
other things agree in their testimony as to the past, 
and join together in the confirmation of history. And 
although all history does not agree in every little par- 
ticular, yet happily for us the variations are generally 
upon things of minor importance, and few in number 
compared with the whole list of events. And such is 
the connection and agreement of the world's history, 
that we can, to say the most, only consider that these 
variations are the exceptions, and attributable to the 
misjudgment of the historian, or the carelessness of 
transcribers, rather than to willful misrepresentations 
and dishonesty, except in a few instances. History, 
on the whole, speaks one language, and impresses us 
with its frankness, sincerity and truthfulness. The 
citation of time, place and circumstances, the mention 
of names, kings, heroes, battles, laws and languages are 
clearly in proof of this. The little colorings of national 
prejudice, and the swayings of party interests, are not 
exceptions, but the natural results of human frailty, 
and just what any considerate mind would be surprised 
not to find. Indeed, a perfect agreement in the rec- 
ord of different and distant historians would be 



118 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

strange — would be miraculous; and could not be, 
except by miracle. Again, we are not to charge his- 
tory with falsity, simply because the events recorded 
seem incredible. That is, we are not at liberty to 
throw aside well authenticated history, just because 
we cannot discover the manner in which the causes 
worked, by which the incidents related were produced. 
And now as to the Bible history (as well as to ancient 
history generally), we find that historian after his- 
torian, who lived nearer by far than we to the periods 
in which the incidents related' occurred, has given 
his unequivocal testimony to the truthfulness of the 
facts in question; hence it would seem like assuming 
very much to otirselves to now deny the occurrence 
of those incidents; not because they were impossible, 
nor because we have proof of their falsity, but simply 
because they appear a little incredible. We have read 
that the king of Siam did not believe that water 
could become hard enough and strong enough, by 
frost, to bear horses and ladened carriages, because to 
him it seemed incredible — seemed miraculous : but 
to us, with our experience, if water should not freeze 
when exposed to the common cold of a northern win- 
ter, it would be a miracle. Thus, in this case, the 
incredibilities are a long way apart — are just the 
opposite. For, with the southern man it is incredible 
that water should so freeze, and with the northern 
man incredible that it would not, when thus exposed 
to cold; each opinion being based upon an honest 
conviction of the mind, but varying with the experi- 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 119 

ence. And the experiences of the two parties having 
been just the opposite of each other, the convictions 
and conclusions were opposite also. And if the mat- 
ter in question had been above or outside of the 
experience of each, and alike opposed to the former 
opinions of each, as for instance whether there may 
be a " Polar Sea " or not, then the question would lie 
between the reliability of the record or statement of 
the facts, and the probabilities, or improbabilities in 
the case; unless the events or facts might be utter 
impossibilities. And evidently, the king of Siam 
would have been ready to question any strange or 
marvelous fact related in connection with that of 
water thus freezing, although to us and to others, with 
a different experience, the statements may be known 
to be true. 

Hence, the appearance to us that the occurence of 
an event is incredible, is no positive proof that it is 
truly and really so ; or that it did not occur or happen 
according to any given statement thereof. And whoever 
takes up the Bible, or any ancient history with the 
idea or intention of believing only that which agrees 
with his own knowledge of the matter involved, must 
be an incurable bigot, or a pitiable monomaniac. 
And in either case, he seems entirely out of the reach 
of help. For if the Bible places before us any one 
idea more prominently than another, it is this, that 
we need information and that it comes to give it — that 
we are in thick darkness and that it comes " a light to 
our feet and a lantern to our path " — in short, comes 



120 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL', 

to tell us what we don't know, and what we have no 
way of ascertaining without it. And our experience 
and consciousness, in respect to our ignorance and 
darkness, are in harmony with this Bible idea. And 
whoever has followed the directions of the Bible with 
any good degree of honesty and perseverance has 
found also (in every case) that it is " a light in a dark 
place " — a light from the skies. And whoever has not 
followed its instructions — has not complied with 
its easy terms, should simply blame himself, or 
herself, and not either God or man, for the deep dark- 
ness which curtains their sky — which shuts them in. 
To show that the blame must thus rest fully and 
wholly with each man and woman concerned; and, 
to meet the worst case possible, among men, who are 
wandering in the wilderness of doubt; we give a fact 
which came under our own observation, and hence it 
is no fiction — no mere story, but a plain and reliable 
case in point. And scores of others equally positive 
and clear can be furnished any hour. The case is that 
of a young man of fine mental ability and of fine cul- 
ture (being a graduate of one of our colleges, and an heir 
to wealth and influence), who declared and who seemed, 
evidently honest in the declaration that " there is no 
God.'' He was informed that Christ had said " Ask 
and it shall he given you, seek and ye shall find / " 
and also informed that if he would ask for light 
it would come to him — if he would seek God, his 
Creator would reveal himself. He consented to try 
the experiment; and, JbmmmHmg with scores of others 



y 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 121 

in prayer, lie openly and audibly said, " O ! God, if there 
be a God, reveal thyself to me," and continued to re- 
peat these words just in this order for a length of 
time. This was his earnest request, which God, in 
great mercy and clearness, answered in due time. 
Afterward, when he knelt before Heaven, he did not 
say, "O! God, if there be a God," but " O! God." 
That is, he was now abundantly satisfied there was a 
God. And although he did not yet know Him as his 
pardoning God, yet he fully believed there was a God. 
At length, however, by still asking — still seeking, he 
found pardon, and " a peace that passeth all under- 
standing" — became calm, and " in his right mind," 
while he whispered with emphasis and in tones of 
joy: "My God! My God!" Here was a man to 
whom the Bible appeared a bundle of falsehoods, and 
religion a jargon of contradictions — to whom crea- 
tion did not seem to proclaim a Creator, and who had 
no hope that reached beyond the boundaries of time. 
And yet to him, in such deep darkness, the doors to 
light and hearty and happy assurance opened readily, 
at the touch of earnest prayer. Isot all at once, to be 
sure, but in succession as he came to them with his 
burdened and anxious soul. His prayer at first how- 
ever was very cold and stoical — even chilly with its 
apparent want of reverence, faith, or whatever it 
lacked ; but was earnest and warm as he continued to 
pray. The change that came over him was not a 
thing of excitement, enthusiasm, or fancy; but some- 
thing real, radical and positive. Hence it was not 



122 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

strange that twenty years afterward, or when we heard 
from him last he was still an an earnest and active 
Christian man; all of which put together in few 
words signifying three things: 1. That God has 
thrown down at the feet of every man a key to light 
and joy — the key of prayer; 2. That it matters lit- 
tle how hard, dark, or infidel a man may be if he wjfl 
seek God as he may — if he will continue earnestly to 
pray for light and help; and, 3. That in this w r ay God 
has placed within the ready reach of every man all the 
light and help he can possibly need; and hence that 
the whole responsibility of his success, or failure at 
the last, lies at his own door — lies in his failure to 
use this golden key to the treasure house of Heaven. 
Just notice, too, this man believed none of the Bible, 
i. e., had neither Bible nor God in the embrace of his 
faith when he began this strange experiment. He 
simply stopped, as it appeared, to test the truth of a 
single verse of that wonderf ul book, and in the exper- 
iment the scales fell from his eyes, just as we will 
warrant them to do in every instance, the wide world 
over, wmere the experiment is faithfully tried. 

" Attempt the end, and never stand in doubt; 
Nothing's so hard, but search will find it out." 

— Herrick. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. . 123 

CHAPTEK IX. 

INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 

The Bible, an Inspired Book, if it is a Reliable History — The Dying 
Charge of Moses Prophetic — The Jew is a Present Proof of the 
Inspiration of the Bible. 

Several pages back we promised to prove the inspi- 
ration of the Bible, by itself, provided its truthfulness 
as a history were acknowledged.* And now we will try 
and redeem that promise. And we propose to intro- 
duce this proof, by showing that Moses must have had 
Divine aid, must have been inspired when he delivered 
his dying charge to the Israelites. The part of that 
charge which we wish more especially now to notice, 
is found in the 28th chapter of the Book of Deuteron- 
omy, and has reference to the distant future of the 
Jews. In the 36th and 37th verses of that chapter an 
event was foretold which was then hundreds of years 
in the future, and was to be the result of their de- 
parture from the ways of the Lord, which departure 
was foretold with wonderful exactness. The verses 
read: " The Lord shall bring thee and thy king which 
thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither 
thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt 
thou serve other gods, wood and stone. And thou 
shalt become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by- 
* Page 116. 



124 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

word, among all nations whither the Lord shall lead 
thee." This was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar 
carried them to Babylon. Now, if Moses spake 
these words to the Jews, as is recorded, and at the 
time mentioned in the record, which was just before 
they passed over Jordan to possess and enjoy the 
good land so long promised them, then Moses was 
more than a man, or else inspired. For no mere 
man has ever been known to put his finger down 
so exactly on events which were so many hundreds 
of years in the dim and distant future; and events, 
too, so improbable in themselves at the hour the 
words were uttered. And what is more wonderful 
still, the Jews at that time had no king, and never 
had had a king, and it seems that there was not then 
among them the idea or expectation of their ever 
having one, save God, from whom they had just a 
few years before received a code of laws, as well as 
a system of worship, from out the burning mount. 
And you will notice that Moses styles this king, 
which was to be a captive with the Jews in a strange 
land, one whom they (not God) had set over the tribes 
of Israel. Thus telling them of this particular wick- 
edness, which they would do, long ages beforehand. 

And this prophecy, and many others found in the 
last words of Moses, have such an intimate relation 
to the law given on Mount Sinai, either as penalty or 
reward, that to say that it was not a God-given law — 
an inspired record — seems like a blank denial of its 
truthfulness as a history. For Moses told them ex- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 125 

pressly, that the captivity of the nation in that, dis- 
tant day would be a punishment for a neglect of this 
Heaven-given law; or, as it is stated in the 15th verse, 
a neglect "to hearken unto the voice of the Lord 
their God, to observe, to do all his commandments 
and his statutes." He said to them also: "I know 
that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, 
and turn aside from the way I have commanded you, 
and evil will befall you in the latter days," etc. That 
is, that evil would come to them — would fall, like 
night, on the nation in the latter — the distant days. 
Not, however, on those men to whom he was speak- 
ing, so much, but on the Jews as Jews, as the centu- 
ries would roll along. 

History tells us that the Israelites prospered to a 
great extent much of the time until the death of Solo- 
mon, which was over 450 years after this prophecy 
by Moses was uttered. " But soon after the death of 
Solomon the ten tribes revolted from Behohoam, Sol- 
omon's successor, and formed a distinct kingdom, 
with Jeroboam for their king. And from that period 
(B. C. 975 years) the clouds of evil gathered thick 
and often, over the two divisions of the chosen peo- 
ple." In a length of time the ten tribes were con- 
quered by the king of Assyria, and were carried away 
to his land, where suffering and servitude awaited 
them, and where bitterness, like a ghost, haunted 
their habitations for a nameless period. Shi shack, 
king of Egypt, made war against the two tribes about 
four years after this division, and took the city of 



126 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL J 

Jerusalem and plundered it and the temple. And 
again and again the Jews received the same treat- 
ment from various kings. Nebuchadnezzar alone 
besieged and took it three times and carried the 
kings to Babylon. He also carried away the golden 
vessels of the temple, and multitudes of the people 
were borne to Babylon to suffer and die in cruel cap- 
tivity. But all their captivities and sufferings, to- 
gether with the plain law and threatenings which 
God had given them, failed most signally to restrain 
the Jews from vice, and to lead them in the path of 
obedience, even after their return from the Babylon- 
ish captivity. " Hence, God often allowed their ene- 
mies to oppress and afflict them. And at a certain 
period their foes blew out the fires of the sacred altar, 
and placed thereon the heathen statue of Jupiter 
Olympus, which remained there about three years." 
When the Savior appeared the Jews were tributary 
to the Roman commonwealth, yet held their distinct- 
iveness as a nation, and were governed by one of their 
own people, which was, according to God's promise, 
made ages beforehand by the mouth of his prophet,* 
viz.: " The scepter shall not depart from Judah, 
nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh 
come." And, although faint and low as the lamp of 
the Jewish government burned for a brief interval or 
two, in the time of their captivity; yet the scepter did 
not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver cease until 
Messiah came. But when the husbandmen (the Jews) 
* Jacob's words, Gen., 49: 10. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 127 

" cast the heir (Christ) out of the vineyard and killed 
him" a long predicted cloud of wrath gathered over 
that people and poured down a flood of ruin. The 
Lord of the vineyard came (the wicked are often his 
sword) and, by Titus and his army, "miserably de- 
stroyed those wicked men and let out his vineyard to 
others." And as they would not come to the king's 
marriage feast according to Christ's own invitation, 
but slew the royal servants who told them that all 
was ready \ Vespasian, by his army under Titus, 
was allowed to besiege and " bum iijp their city." 
Now if any one can read the history of that awful 
siege, let alone all that had happened to the wayward 
Jews at any prior period, and not discover at a glance 
that some higher wisdom than that of Moses dictated 
that dying charge to Israel, surely their mind must 
be benumbed by some opiate of infidelity, or be- 
clouded by a pitiable ignorance. Just notice how he 
describes the circumstances. "And thou shalt eat the 
fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of 
thy daughters, in the siege, and in the straitness 
wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee." This, 
profane history says, was so. Josephus informs us 
that " the famine overcame all other passions. Chil- 
dren snatched from the mouths of their fathers the 
very food they were eating." Parents cooked and ate 
the flesh of their own children ; and the most delicate 
of the daughters of Jerusalem ate the flesh of their 
offspring. And on one occasion, a lady who had 
boiled her child and eaten a part of it, offered the re- 



128 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

mainder to a few soldiers who demanded food at her 
hand, but, horror-struck at the sight, they fled from 
the dismal spectacle. This part of the prophecy had 
been fulfilled before in the siege of Samaria, which 
occurred 600 years after the time of Moses, when the 
meanest morsel sold for an enormous price, and the 
mother " boiled her son and did eat him" Indeed 
it had been done in Jerusalem itself before this its 
final overthrow, which was when King Nebuchadnez- 
zar besieged the city. 

" Another part of this prediction, by Moses, was, that 
the enemy " shall besiege thee in all thy gates until 
the high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou 
trustedst, throughout all thy land." This sweeping 
assertion concerning the cities of Canaan would have 
been a bold announcement; and by a human mind 
could hardly have been anticipated, even an age be- 
fore the fulfillment; and, much less, minutely foretold 
by human wisdom centuries before it occurred. But 
here, in this prophecy, which was made before the 
Jews had even entered upon the land of promise, 
we find a representation of the state into which the 
cities of Israel fell (after ages of prosperity), and in 
which they have remained for long generations last 
past." 

As R. Watson says: "Every traveler lacks words 
to describe the desolation which everywhere reigns 
throughout all that land; and, indeed, he often fails 
to satisfy himself, as to the exact spot where some of 
those busy cities once stood;" i. e., the wheels of years 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 129 

and change have rolled over some of them so long that 
even the last vestige of their ruins is nearly obliter- 
ated. Moses told the Israelites: " Ye shall be 
plucked from off the land whither thou goest to pos- 
sess it. And the Lord shall scatter thee among all 
people from the one end of the earth even unto 
the other" And thus they were removed from their 
land, and for over eighteen hundred years infidels and 
heathen have trampled down what was, in IsraePs 
prosperous years, a land flowing with milk and honey. 
And thus, too, they have been scattered over the con- 
tinents of the earth as well as over the islands of the 
sea ; have found their way through the drifting snows 
of Siberia and the shifting sands of the burning 
desert. " The civilized traveler, when he has pushed 
his way into remote regions, hears still of the 
Jew beyond him, in climes where his footsteps 
dare not venture. Thus, while other nations have 
some barrier and limit to their wanderings," the 
Jew, like the air of Heaven, wanders to the ends of 
the earth. 

But after all the distress and death which have 
fallen upon the Jewish tribes, yet how wonderfully 
have they held out! How distinct are they to-day 
from the other nations, and how tenacious of their 
own laws and peculiarities. They have witnessed the 
fall of the Assyrian empire; the destruction of the 
Persian power; the breaking up of the Grecian king- 
dom, and the crumbling of the Roman reign; yet 
without a king; without a center of power; without a 
9 



130 

common shrine of worship, or any connected corres- 
pondence for ages, the Jews are Jews still. 

The individual characteristics of the four great em- 
pires seen in Daniel's vision, and which successively 
held the reins of dominion over the nations, have dis- 
appeared in the whirl of the past, and now have ex- 
istence only on the pages of history. " But the Jewish 
character stands unmoved in the shock, and seems, if 
possible, less affected by the rise and tumbling down 
of thrones, empires and cities, through the lapse of 
ages, than the pyramids themselves" " The allied 
powers of persecution, famine, pestilence and sword, 
have done their worst to blot out the last remnant of 
the ' House of Israel,' and to turn them from the 
principles bequeathed them by their fathers. " B ut like 
a rock in some eddy of the ocean, over which the angry 
surge has dashed for an interminable time, they re- 
main, with their own peculiarities. Having suffered 
what would have long ago crushed out of existence 
any other nation on the face of the earth, they live to 
wander, traffic and trade, the wide world over. Now 
where in the affairs of men is the clue to the cause of 
these astonishing facts ; where in the dominion of hu- 
man reason the key to this miraculous problem ? Ah ! 
"Where but in Omnipotence is found a power sufficient 
for its accomplishment, and a wisdom that could fore- 
tell that such things should be witnessed in the long 
unfoldings of the drama of time? " Yet centuries be- 
forehand the prophets foresaw these things, pro- 
claimed them and recorded them, both for the reading 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 131 

and reproach of the actors in this ignoble scene," as 
well as for our instruction. " Though I make a full 
end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet 
will I not make a full end of thee." * Here we have 
the announcement of the wonderful secret. Here is 
found sufficient light to scatter our amazement why 
the Jews were not long since brushed into the pool 
of total extinction, " and the foot-prints of their wan- 
derings washed out by the ebbings of ages." 

Xow it seems certain that Moses must have been 
inspired to have left such a dying charge. Indeed, 
there is no other way to account for his accuracy in 
describing what should come. For it is plain to the 
eye of reason that no mere man, no human mind, un- 
inspired, could so lift up the folds of the future, as to 
discover and foretell so minutely what should trans- 
pire u in the latter days." Just notice — the calami- 
ties and blessings were described with the clearness 
of a mind that had already gazed upon them — with 
the assurance of one who knew. Although a long 
period was to intervene, with regard to some of the 
predicted events, in which Israel should grow like a 
cedar in Lebanon, and enjoy a land which was to be 
cleared of its wicked inhabitants, and given to the 
heirs of Abraham for a possession (according to pre- 
vious promises), " yet along that dim distance, and 
through a multitude of shifting and contingent 
causes, the eye of prophecy glanced on and read the 
future as though written in capitals." Ages piled 
*Jer., 30:11. 



132 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

upon ages could not hinder its sight, nor screen the 
events of coining centuries from its observation. 
And now, as nothing short of the aid of the Infinite 
One could have thus brought the future under the 
gaze of Moses and the Prophets, in these cases, all 
unbiased minds must feel the utmost assurance that 
these men were inspired; and like "holy men, wrote 
and sjjoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." 
And in like manner we might prove that the other 
prophecies were of God; or prove them to have been 
inspired. And if the prophetic parts of the Bible 
must have been inspired, then it is plain that their 
connections and bearings upon the balance of that 
record are such as to give us the assurance that it, 
too, is the " word of God to man; " and 

" A Deity believed is joy begun; 
A Deity ador'd is joy advanc'd; 
A Deity belov'd is joy matur'd." 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 133 

CHAPTER X. 

THE CHARACTER OF THE BIBLE AS A BOOK. 

It is a Leader and a Lamp — Argument is not what the Infidel needs — 
The Savior used and accepted the Old Testament as God's In- 
spired Word — The Earth is a Witness to the Truth of the Bible 
History — The Composition of the Bible Language — Rousseau's 
Praise of the Scriptures — Thomas Jefferson reading his Bible. 

Perhaps to a thoughtful mind it would seem like 
time thrown away to go into a formal proof of the 
truthfulness of the Scriptures now and here, after 
having said so much touching the inspiration of the 
Bible, and after having pointed directly to the golden 
key of prayer which will surely unlock any system of 
doubt and darkness (if faithfully used) and lead at 
once to light and joy. And especially so, while what 
the unbeliever needs most of all things is not argu- 
ment — not fine drawn threads of philosophy; but 
the light of the Holy Spirit, which will be his if he 
does but seek it; therefore we will touch lightly this 
item which thus comes in our way. Beside, if any 
man will study with candor the difficult problems, 
which are the object and burden of these pages, he will 
probably see so much need of the Bible as a light in 
the darkness of our earthly surroundings, that he will 
hail it with a glad and a grateful heart — will prize it 
as the "book of books." At least, if he will not, 
then argument will be lost upon him. In other 



134 

words, we think such a man does not wish for light — 
would not read an argument in favor of revelation if 
given him, and would neither remember nor profit by 
it even if he might, perchance, read it. No, no, the 
blessed Spirit's light is what he needs and must have, 
or his life must be a wretched failure. In a general 
way, it may be said, however, in few words, that if 
we were to cut out of portions of profane history the 
quotations from the Bible, and the facts which have 
alone been drawn from that source, the remainder 
would be scraps — would be a ruin. Hence, as before 
stated, history is pledged for, and stands or falls, with 
the truthfulness of the Bible record. And especially 
is the New Testament so interwoven with the profane 
history of those ages as to make their separation im- 
possible, as well as to make the truthfulness of the 
latter, a solemn pledge of the truthfulness of the 
former. And when the truthfulness of the New Tes- 
tament Scriptures is established, then a brief and 
yet an intrenched argument is found in the New, for 
the Old Testament. The argument is this: If Christ 
used, prized and endorsed the Jewish Scriptures, 
which consisted of all the sacred books known to his- 
tory or to man at that time, or now, then, if Christ 
was what all history claimed him to be — wise and 
good, the Old Testament must be reliable — must be 
God's word to the world, i. e., the inspired truth. And, 
that Christ did use, endorse and prize the Jewish 
Scriptures — that he did make them the basis and re- 
pository of truth, faith and hope to the world, is as 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 13c 

certain as any fact, or event, connected with those 
years, can possibly be. And whoever attempts to 
gainsay or overturn this statement, attempts to 
weaken, if not to blot out, every record of time under 
Heaven — attempts to stultify reason itself, and con- 
tradict both God and man. 

And what is more, the condition of the earth, and 
the condition of man upon it, both signifiy that the 
Bible history is correct — both signify that all has 
not gone on harmlessly and happily with man. 

The earth also testifies that it has been at least 
washed, if indeed its surface has not been broken and 
confused by a flood. The shells, too, found on the 
mountains, and the remains of animals found at such 
unaccountable distances from their native places, all 
say a flood — a flood. And profane history and the 
traditions found among the savage tribes all say there 
has been a flood, which swept over the earth as a con- 
sequence of sin among men. And then the great 
variety of languages found among the nations of the 
earth are in keeping with, and can hardly be ex- 
plained without, the confusion of tongues which the 
Bible charges to the building of Babel. And thus 
we might go on indefinitely citing facts, sayings and 
incidents by which and through which the Bible his- 
tory and its inspiration are confirmed beyond all rea- 
sonable question. But we now turn to items more 
vital to the purpose of this volume — turn to consider 
the record itself as a law to mankind, and the rela- 
tions of man to this law and under it. 



136 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

And, first, the record. It is generally admitted 
that all human languages are both imperfect and 
changeable. And being so, no one of them can per- 
fectly communicate the ideas of a speaker or writer 
to the persons addressed, even though those who are 
spoken to are of the same nation or neighborhood. 
Again, as any people and their circumstances will 
change with the lapse of years, so will their language 
take new words or phrases, while the signification of 
many former words will change more or less. So 
that, if God, with his own hand, had written his will 
in a book, or written a Bible for man, in the far off 
or the ancient time (in any language), that Bible 
would now need a running commentary of explana- 
tion for common readers, if not for most readers, in 
that language. Thus, any writing, however carefully 
composed, will, after the lapse of years, be more or 
less misty in its character, and subject to be misun- 
derstood, in some little particulars at least. And, be- 
side this, that we may place the English Bible in its 
true light, we must take into the account another con 
sideration, which is, that it is a translation from 
another tongue. And all who are at all acquainted 
with the difficulty of so translating an author as that 
his ideas shall be fully brought out (and only his 
ideas), will see that it is scarcely possible that even 
our excellent translation should give us, in every re- 
spect, the exact ideas of the writers of the Bible his- 
tory. 

And this fact, in respect to our Bible being a trans- 



OR, 



137 



lation, without saying much concerning the difficulty 
of making an accurate translation (which seems, at 
first sight, to be an unmitigated misfortune, or a dark 
shadow over the Bible record), proves in the end to 
be the basis of some of the most reliable proofs for 
its genuineness. For, if there had never been but 
one language in the world, and that unchangeable 
(which, perhaps, would have been the case, but for 
the Fall), the great antiquity of the Bible history 
might not be so firmly established as it now can be. In 
other words, the law of Moses and that portion of the 
Old Testament scriptures which were written in the 
old Hebrew language, are thus plainly shown to be 
things of an ancient date, i. e., written prior to, or 
very soon after, the Babylonish captivity of the Jewish 
nation. For, the Hebrew ceased to be spoken as a 
living language soon after that event, which, in the 
nature of things and with the surrounding circum- 
stances, would make such a production thereafter ex- 
tremely improbable, if not absolutely impossible. 

And then, and beside this, the Samaritan Pent- 
ateuch and the Hebrew Pentateuch which were held 
from such an early date, by separated and contending 
factions of the Jewish people, while they yet agree so 
completely with each other, and are still translations, 
are a plain proof that the Jewish scriptures are the 
production of a distant period, as well as the only 
reliable early record of the race. 

Again, the changeableness of language and its effect 
upon any law given by Heaven, at any period, near 



138 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

or remote, only tends to prove to us (while we look 
over the facts touching this law), that there is lying 
behind and under the sacred word, a divine energy 
and agency which is capable of making a record of 
itself and of its will, even on the shifting sands of 
the desert, and the changeful and varying face of the 
sky. In other words, it signifies that omnipotent 
wisdom, watch care and love, have this work in hand 
and will astonish man as much by the moral liberty 
with which the race is found to be surrounded (while 
shut in by the iron lines of law), as by this perpetu- 
ation of truth and heavenly light through mediums 
so evanescent and changeful as it now chooses to em- 
ploy. And we thus briefly call attention, to this 
fact, in these casual thoughts, touching the Bible 
history, for the express benefit of those who seem 
willing to stickle for, and to rest upon some par- 
ticular meaning of a single word or phrase in the 
Bible record, rather than to be governed by the tenor 
and general scope, or teaching of this wonderful 
book. And now, lest what we have said as to the 
imperfection and changeableness of language, shall 
awaken a distrust in the mind of any one, it will be 
proper to say that the great and general doctrines 
and precepts of the Bible are expressed and illustrated 
in so many ways, and by so many figures and par- 
ables as to make them clear, or plain beyond a doubt. 
It is in things not so essential — in the little, or 
smaller matters of the record, that so many good 
and well-meaning men are found to differ so much, 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 139 

and about which they are likely to dispute or con- 
tend. 

The two extremes, or the two classes of men, one of 
which is so stickling as to the import of a word, and 
the other so ready to wipe out all the boundary lines 
between vice and virtue, are to be alike watched and 
warned, but neither despised, nor shunned. Both 
wrong; and likely to do great harm to the cause of 
truth, but still they are to be dealt with kindly, 
coolly and yet plainly. One of them would make us 
believe a miracle, in respect to the exactness and 
stability of language, while we know that it is not 
stable; and the other would attempt to make us 
believe that the Savior and the good angels were 
wonderfully in earnest and concerned about mere 
trifles — about childish notions, or nothing; which 
would be equally miraculous. Then, while we can 
and should rely implicitly upon the general teachings 
of the Bible — upon its great and fundamental truths, 
we should constantly and cautiously avoid building a 
theory upon a few accidental expressions or casual 
statements found scattered here and there in this 
book. And although we may be forced to the con- 
clusion, that the thoughts and the doctrines are divine, 
that the scope and the purpose are infinitely above 
and beyond all mere human plans and conceptions, 
still the medium through which these thoughts and 
plans are and must be communicated to man, is 
human indeed; and being human, must be imperfect 
and changeable, as we have already stated. And 



140 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

whether God gave language to man, or whether 
language is an invention of man, is a question of no 
importance in this particular. That is, its being a 
God-given art would of itself neither make it perfect, 
or imperfect. 

For we find that language is as perfect and stable 
as man, at least, and adapted to man's condition quite 
as well as the air around him, or the earth on which 
he treads. So, there is nothing to hinder its being a 
divine gift, although imperfect, any more, at least, 
than there is that man's surroundings have a divine 
origin. Yet, while language is so completely human 
in its adaptations, we notice that when God takes it 
up to give us his law, to give us a counselor and a 
guide, there is developed a wonderful power of ex- 
pression, an unspeakable and latent energy and rich- 
ness, which was never before discovered. The compo- 
sition seems to be simple and plain, to be sure, but 
the ideas which those words convey are legion, and 
seem to lie in and back of the mere words (and often 
undiscovered), like stars in the deep bosom of the 
evening. We take up any human production, and 
however abstruse the vein of thought may be, we soon 
comprehend it all — soon take in and inspect its outer 
and utmost boundary ; bnt never so with this book of 
God Almighty. There is always a beyond when we 
have read the longest and pondered the deepest. Al- 
ways more and new meaning and thought, which we 
catch glimpses of through the wonderful wording of 
this wonderful book, as we read it year after year, and 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 141 

age after age, for " three score years and ten." And 
thus we find human language in the hand of God, just 
like any tiling else which he touches, doing more than 
its wont, springing up into a plane of power, and 
stretching away and on in its comprehension, until 
we are ready to ask, in a tone of wonder, " And what 
next? " Many observing and learned unbelievers, who 
have taken the pains to examine this history, have 
noticed something of this feature therein, and occa- 
sionally have acknowledged the power and wonderf ill- 
ness of the Scripture language. Jean Jacques Rous- 
seau has given us a glimpse into a poor infidel's inner 
convictions and heart, in this respect, although the 
common practices of his life and the general teach- 
ings of his tongue were black with the scum of bitter 
unbelief. And these honest and true words may have 
been pressed out, perhaps, by some calamity, or by 
some shock of death. At least, they are wonderful 
words for an avowed infidel to utter. He writes: 

" I will confess to you that the majesty of the Scriptures strikes 
me with admiration, as the purity of the Gospel has its influence on 
my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their 
pomp of diction ! how mean, how contemptible are they compared 
with the Scripture! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple 
and sublime, should be merely the work of man? Is it possible 
that the sacred personage, whose history it contains, should be him- 
self a mere man? Do we find that he assumed the tone of an en- 
thusiast or ambitious secretary ? What sweetness, what purity in lus 
manners! What an affecting gracefulness in Ins delivery! What 
sublimity in his maxims ! What profound wisdom in his discourses ! 
What presence of mind in his replies ! How great a command over 
his passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could 
so live and so die, without weakness and without ostentation? 



142 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

When Plato described his imaginary good man with all the shame 
of guilt, yet meriting the highest awards of virtue, he described ex- 
actly the character of Jesus Christ. The resemblance was so strik- 
ing that all the Christian fathers perceived it. 

" What prepossession, what blindness must it be to compare the 
son of Sophronicus (Socrates) to the son of Mary! What an infinite 
disproportion is there between them! Socrates dying without pain 
or ignominy, easily supported his character to the last; and if his 
death, however easy, had not crowned his life, it might have been 
doubted whether Socrates, with all his wisdom, was anything more 
than a vain sophist. He invented, it is said, the theory of morals. 
Others, however, had before put them in practice; he had only to 
say, therefore, what they had done, and to reduce their examples to 
precept. But where could Jesus learn among Ins competitors that 
pure and sublime morality of which he only has given us both pre- 
cept and example ? The death of Socrates, peacefully philosophizing 
with his friends, appears the most agreeable that could be wished 
for; that of Jesus, expiring in the midst of agonizing pains, abused, 
insulted and accused by a whole nation, is the most horrible that 
could be feared. Socrates, in receiving the cup of poison, blessed 
the weeping executioner who administered it; but Jesus, in the 
midst of excruciating tortures, prayed for his merciless tormentors. 
Yes, if the life and death of Socrates were that of a sage, the life 
and death of Jesus were those of a God. Shall we suppose the 
evangelic history a mere fiction? Indeed, my friend, it bears no 
marks of fiction. On the contrary, the history of Socrates, which 
nobody presumes to doubt, is not so well attested as that of Jesus 
Christ. Such a supposition, in fact, only shifts the difficulty with- 
out obviating it. It is more inconceivable that a number of persons 
should agree to write such a history, than that one only should 
furnish the subject of it. The Jewish authors were incapable of the 
diction, and strangers to the morality contained in the Gospel, the 
marks of whose truth are so striking and inimitable that the in- 
ventor would be a more astonishing man than the hero." 

Here, evidently, we have a picture sketched by a 
scholar or a cultivated critic; and hence, these are not 
the thoughts of a novice, nor the promptings of blind 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 143 

enthusiasm; but the work of a mind skillful, devel- 
oped and sharp indeed. And here too, we have the 
frank, simple and yet pointed truth, touching the 
New Testament as a history, Christ as a character, 
and the gospel of the Redeemer in its beauty, purity 
and grandeur, as compared with the wisest and the 
best productions of men, among both the living and 
the dead. All which evidently shows that it is the 
heart and not the judgment that often prompts the 
words uttered by unbelievers. And not unfrequently 
we find the skeptic reading and pondering the pages 
of the Bible by himself, as though he was not yet 
fully satisfied with regard to its truth; or else because 
his heart is sad and heavy with some dismal trouble, 
and therefore flies to the sacred record for a balm for 
its pain and rest for its burden of bitterness. It is 
said that Thomas Jefferson (although he has been 
claimed as a staunch infidel), after the death of his 
beautiful daughter Maria, in 1804, was found " with 
the Bible in his hands seeking consolation from its 
sacred pages." And it seems by an answer to a friend 
who had written him a line of condolence in those 
dark days of bereavment, that notwithstanding his 
peculiar make of mind and tenor of thought, yet after 
all he entertained the Christian's hope — the Bible- 
man's trust. He said: 

" My loss is great indeed. Others may lose of their abundance, 
but I, of my want, have lost even the half of all I had. My eve- 
ning prospects now hang on the slender thread of a single life. 
Perhaps I may be destined to see even this last cord of parental 



144 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

affection broken. The hope with which I had looked forward to the 
moment when, resigning public cares to younger hands, I was to 
retire to that domestic comfort from which the last great step is to 
be taken, is fearfully blighted. 

4 ' We have, however, the traveler's consolation. Every step 
shortens the distance we have to go. The end of our journey is in 
sight — the bed whereon we are to rest and to rise in the midst of 
the friends we have lost. ' We sorrow not, then, as others who have 
no hope,' but look forward to the day which joins us to the great 
majority. But whatever is to be our destiny, wisdom as well as 
duty dictates that we should acquiesce in the will of Him whose it is 
to give and to take away, and be content in the enjoyment of those 
who are still permitted to be with us." 

Now the reader can readily see that these are not 
the thoughts and words of cold and dark infidelity — 
not the ideas of men who hate or despise the Bible, or 
the teachings and hopes of Christianity. And hence, 
whatever this talented and honored man may have 
once believed or said, he was not an infidel at this 
hour in his history, but the contrary in every impor- 
tant particular. 



OE, THEOKY AND THEOLOGY. 145 



CHAPTEE XI. 
THE BIBLE OUR ULTIMATE ARBITER. 

The Return to the Sacred Record — The Men who must Know the 
Why of Everything — Question of Depravity and Consequent 
Sorrow — Eve*ry Man who is not an Atheist Interested in the 
Question — Voltaire's Shocking Picture of Men and Human 

Life — Nature does not Proclaim a Moral Government. 

■ 

Like the beauty and comfort of the purest light of 
day to those who have been lost and wandering in 
some dismal cavern (when again restored to the loved 
ones in their own bright and happy homes), so is the 
joy and rest of the man who, after straining his eyes 
in the darkness of mere human reason, clasps the 
blessed Bible to his breast again, and away down, 
down in his innermost soul feels to exclaim, with 
streaming eyes and a thankful smile: 

"Blessed Bible, book Divine, 
Precious treasure thou art mine. 
Mine, to tell me whence I came — 
Mine, to teach me what I am — 
Mine, to chide me when I rove — 
Mine, to point my heart above.' 1 

And again, according as the darkness and the dan- 
ger have been felt and comprehended by any one who 
has been feeling his way in the gloom of a cave, the 
brighter and the more valuable the sunlight will 
10 



146 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

appear; so, the more blind, cheerless and despairing 
the book of nature maj have seemed, the dearer, 
sweeter and more precious will appear to the soul, the 
words of light and life found in the book of Revela- 
tion. 

And hence, with joy and a sweet undying trust, we 
lay our hands and hearts upon the blessed word 
again — lay down our doubts, distrusts and fears on 
the altar of its hopes, and hasten to a shelter of 
safety under the wing of its promises. We can doubt 
everything else but God and this — can spare every- 
thing else better than God and this. For truly it is " a 
light to our feet and a lantern to our path " — a price- 
less book indeed. Not that all mysteries are explained 
by the Bible; not that the dark problem of human 
sorrow and suffering is entirely solved by it; but it 
sheds so much light upon that problem, as that by a 
careful coupling of its truths and teachings with the 
light of experience and intuition, we can so unravel 
to our satisfaction that vexed question of depravity 
and pain, as to feel no anxieties, no dread or fear of 
ill while we faithfully follow the teachings of the 
Redeemer. 

In fact, a large number of mankind to-day are not 
aware of the great darkness which clouds some of the 
dealings of Providence toward our little globe. Hap- 
pily and instinctively they believe — feel — know, — 
that God is good and loving to and toward his crea- 
tures and, like a child at home (questioning some, 
but not carefully, either surroundings, provisions or 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 147 

attentions), with them it is enough that father is 
about — not gone away and not going away, sure. 
And then, the hoped for home of eternal rest, just a 
little away ahead — just over the river of death is, in 
their minds, to make amends for all the little ills 
which they meet with in this land of shadows and 
of sin. And thousands upon thousands have lived 
happily and usefully — have died peacefully — tri- 
umphantly — who were in this condition — of this 
faith. And were it not for those who are never con- 
tent with glancing over the mere surface of events 
and things — who wish and are determined to see 
and examine the minutest workings of cause and 
effect — the inner court of all laws, physical, mental 
and moral; much that has gone before in these pages 
and much that is to follow, might have been omitted. 
Or, if touched at all, touched lightly and brushed 
over with the varnish of Christian hope and trust. 
As things are, however, or in other words, inasmuch 
as many minds are at work upon this problem, both 
among the learned and the unlearned, it only betrays 
a conscious inability to grapple with these mighty 
questions, or a want of mental keenness to discover 
the magnitude and importance of them, when we pass 
them lightly and carelessly by, they having an inti- 
mate relation to human hope, both for this world and 
the next. And thus, lying down at the root of all 
valuable religious trust — all consistent faith and ex- 
pectancy, they must be disposed of by some method 
when they present themselves; for they demand an 



148 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

answer of some sort, and will not be hushed up. Of 
course, the question of human depravity, and of con- 
sequent sorrow, is an old question, as we have said 
before, and being old, has received years of thought — 
ages of thought.* Also, attempts to answer it have 
been frequent and studied; but as yet, the man is to 
be found, it seems, who can give an answer which does 
not involve the justice of the Creator. And it ap- 
pears strange; it even seems miraculous, that the 
Bible has not given us more light upon this impor- 
tant point — that we are left to ascertain by conjec- 
ture, or inference, what would seem to be an impor- 
tant item of information. To be sure, the Bible tells 
us that God is good and just, and that " His tender 
mercies are over all his works;" but many of the 
heathen seem to know this as well as we, and seem to 
rely upon his justice and goodness with wonderful 
steadiness, although they have no Bible — although 
they have never heard of a Bible. We feel sure that 
we are better prepared to judge of moral questions 
than they, and that the Bible has thrown a flood of 
light into the world — a flood of joy into the abodes 
of men; but on this old and vexed question the 
heathen do not seem to be much behind us in the 
way of an answer. And surely, there must be a rea- 
son for this fact, and that reason will perhaps show 
itself as we drive into the question. But whether it 
does or does not, an answer to the question is to be 
sought for, and to be found if possible. And deists 
* Page 81 in this work, and page 3 of Fall and Rescue. 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 14:9 

as well as Christians — every man who is not an 
atheist, is interested in the sequel of this search. 
Yoltaire, in looking at this subject and at the disor- 
ders and sorrows of earth, draws a sad picture, and 
closes with a dreadful and despairing wish. He says 
in his "Gospel of the Day: " 

" Who, without horror, can consider the whole earth as the em- 
pire of destruction? It abounds in wonders, it abounds also in vic- 
tims; it is a vast field of carnage and contagion. Every species is, 
without pity, pursued and torn to pieces, through the earth, and air, 
and water. In man there is more wretchedness than in all other 
animals put together; he smarts continually under two scourges 
which other animals never feel: anxiety and listlessness in appetence, 
which makes him weary of himself. He loves life, and yet he 
knows that he must die. If he enjoys some transient good, for 
which he is thankful to Heaven, he suffers various ills, and is at last 
devoured by worms. This knowledge is his fatal prerogative; other 
animals have it not. He feels it every moment rankling and cor- 
roding in his breast. Yet he spends the transient moment of his 
existence in diffusing the misery that he suffers; in cutting the 
throats of his fellow creatures for pay; in cheating and being 
cheated; in robbing and being robbed; in serving that he may com- 
mand; in repenting of all that he does. The bulk of mankind are 
nothing more than a crowd of wretches, equally criminal and unfor- 
tunate; and the globe contains rather carcasses than men. I trem- 
ble upon a review of this dreadful picture, to find that it implies a 
complaint against Providence, and I wish that I had never been 
born." 

Here is the conclusion of one of earth's favored 
sons — one of the greatest philosophers and poets of 
his time, but a bold and blank deist — a Bible scorner. 
And hence, when his keen eye took in the whole sit- 
uation of earth with its discord, sin and sorrow, and 
having no key to its calamities, such as is found in 



150 THE PKOBLEM OF EVIL*, 

the sacred record and in the personal experience of 
those who know and love God, he made this terrible, 
terrible wish; reminding ns of a line of Robert 
Young's, which reads: 

"Annihilation is an after-thought, begotten when virtue dies." 
That is not a natural or first thought — not the 
thought of innocence, but the thought of gloomy 
guilt — a thought which can only enter .the human 
soul when virtue has departed — died out. For, gen- 
erally, men are content to be, if not much, pleased 
with life. Generally they are thankful for existence, 
even when that existence is the occasion of harassing 
trouble and wearing toil. But poor and infidel Vol- 
taire was not the first nor the last man who has made 
the discovery that earth is full of strife, sin and mis- 
ery — not the only man who, having despised instruc- 
tion from God, and trampled divine truth under his 
feet, has failed to comprehend the tangled skein of 
life so as to make him easy, or at least happy in its 
discord. K~or is this a matter of wonder at ail, for 
with the Bible in their hands to tell them of the ter- 
rible change which sin wrought in Adam and Eve — 
the curse which came of transgression, and also of the 
great gift of Christ to die for the guilty; still, as we 
have said before, the best minds have found it hard to 
explain man and his surroundings so as to exonerate 
the Creator from censure, or from the charge of cru- 
elty and injustice. And many, amid the raging waves 
of time's troubled tide, have yielded to such discour- 
agement or despair as, in the words of Prior, to say: 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 151 

" Who breathes must suffer — who thinks must mourn; 
And he alone is blest who ne'er was bom." 

Or, if they have not really adopted this sentiment, yet 
in spirit they have said, with" Montgomery: 

" I long to lay this aching head, 

And throbbing heart beneath the soil; 
To slumber in that dreamless bed 

From all my toil; 
For, misery stole me at my birth 

And cast me helpless on the wild, 
I perish; Oh! my mother earth 

Take home thy child! " 

At least thousands upon thousands have gone as far 
as to heartily join in the plaintive exclamation of the 
poet Muhlenburg: 

" I would not live alway." 

If none but those who have willfully disobeyed law 
were the subjects of suffering, and if they received 
each just in proportion to their offense, then the case 
would not be difficult — would not so tax invention, 
nor defy explanation. It is this indiscriminate chas- 
tisement (if chastisement is the name to call it 
by — if it does not often seem like mere caprice 
or blind passion), that so confuses the case, 
and blots out all the foot-prints of justice and 
of judgment. Bishop Butler would make us be- 
lieve that nature indicates to us a moral govern- 
ment. That is, that vice and virtue are on the whole 
rewarded. Well, we can readily see that there are 
certain laws in the material world, and that these laws 



152 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

are in a constant contention; that the great law of 
these laws is, never to be quiet, never to be at peace. 
We observe, also, that the brute creation is in a simi- 
lar condition; is restless as the sea from mere in- 
stinct or law of being. We know, too, that in the 
working of the laws of our physical and mental con- 
stitution, men easily and naturally, if not necessarily 
infringe upon the supposed rights of others, and that 
strife and blood are the result. Hence, if a govern- 
ment is discoverable at all in nature, it would seem to 
be one of mere might. For instance, the sea yields 
to the law of attraction and forms the tides, simply 
because it must; and falls back to its level again 
when the attraction is removed for the same reason, 
i. e., by the iron nerve of law. So among brutes; 
appetite and instinct prompt their actions and the 
power to follow instinct and appetite is the only ques- 
tion in regard to what they may do. Man, on the 
contrary, has a power of volition; has reason instead 
of appetite; or, rather reason, instinct and appetite. 
And placed in the midst of nature's contentions he 
seems to be "kissed and cuffed " by turns, as a mere 
matter of course, and not after any rule, unless it be 
the rule of variety and accident. Were this not so, 
that old question " whether the righteous or the 
wicked are happiest," would not be a proper question 
for debate. To be sure, experience shows us that cer- 
tain actions of others are injurious and painful to us, 
and we can thereby judge that the same actions are 
injurious and painful to them. In this way, some- 



153 

thing may be gathered as to what is right for us to 
do in respect to those around us. Something may be 
ascertained as to what is best for men in society to 
do, in view of present happiness; but, what will that 
tell us as to God's hatred of vice, or His love of vir- 
tue. The brutes would be much happier if they 
would cease injuring one another; but because they 
do, or do not cease to injure each other, are they un- 
der a moral government? The question is not, 
whether they are subject to certain laws, and enjoy 
and suffer somewhat according to their actions; but 
the question is, Are they, in any sense, under a moral 
government? If they are not, then any little penalty 
for the infringement of law, or any little reward for a 
compliance to certain laws will not constitute, nor re- 
veal a moral government in the world. 

Is it not true, in fact, that in the present state of 
things virtue often gets the deserts of vice, and vice 
the praise and rewards of virtue? Aristides of Ath- 
ens, Socrates, and Lady Jane Grey, are instances of 
the former. 

But mind, this does not prove that there is no moral 
government in the world, nor prove that mankind are 
not fully aware that there is ; but simply, that the lit- 
tle penalties and rewards usually following vice and 
virtue do not reveal such a government. 

A moral government is one which has respect to 
moral actions, evidently. But, can a government be 
moral unless its laws and rewards are founded in jus- 
tice? If not, and if the penalties to law in nature 



154 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

do not seem to be founded in strict equity, then how 
shall we know that it is such a government by simply 
observing those laws. For instance, what was said a 
little back in respect to poisons or the manner in 
which some of them were discovered to be poison, i. <?., 
by the death of a fellow or friend who had taken 
them without knowing their nature. They were not 
marked, and yet the penalty fell just as though they 
had been — just as though full warning and advice 
had been given. This, among men, would be neither 
honor nor justice, and could not be reconciled with 
any respectable system of government. It would be- 
come a system of barbarism, cruelty, or tyranny, but 
not of enlightened and virtuous government. 

Such thoughts seem terrible; seem almost wicked; 
but if such are really the facts in the case, then the 
mention of them is simply history — is only putting 
them on the record. And if only a few such facts 
were to be found in the system of nature they might 
be passed without much notice; but as their number 
is so great, hence, even with the Bible in our hands 
they are enigmas indeed, and demand a key ; demand 
some explanation. 

Theologians have, generally, at least, gone as far as 
to say that this Problem of Evil is to be answered by 
some consequence or definition of sin. And this, we 
believe, has been the united voice of mankind in all 
the dialects of earth, and in all time. We will notice 
a few of them in our next chapter. 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 155 

CHAPTEK XII. 

THE CAUSE AND THE BOUNDARY OF GUILT. 

Men not Born under the Guilt of Adam's Sin — Origin, Calvin, 
Wesley, etc. — Dr. Shedd's and Dr. Hodge's Theory — Dr. Mi- 
nor's Theory — All based alike on Divine Sovereignty — Thomas 
Paine's Frophecy as to the Bible — The Five Points Made — But 
for Christ there would have been no Cain and Abel — (The First 
Stake) — We would choose to Live, although we must Live in 
this Sorrowing World. 

Many of the fathers in theology, such as Origin, 
St. Cyprian, Chrysostom and many of a more recent 
date, such as Luther, Wesley, and Calvin, generally 
believed (and with little shades of difference taught) 
that " we are all born under the guilt of Adam's sin,"* 
and that all sin deserves eternal misery. And all men 
being thus considered sinners, it was not thought won- 
derful that we are subject to suffering in all its grades 
of forms. Wesley, in his " Works," vol. 6, p. 14, says: 
" The whole race of mankind are obnoxious both to 
the guilt and punishment of Adam's transgression." 
And on page 16 (in connection with the subject of 
baptism), he says: " It has been already proved that 
this original stain (the guilt of the first sin) cleaves to 
every child of man, and that thereby they are children 
of wrath, and liable to eternal damnation." But di- 

* But our theory is that they were neither born under the guilt of 
Adam's sin, as here stated, nor under the penalty of that sin, as 
stated pages 189 and 196. 



156 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

rectly he states that a remedy is provided in Christ, 
which, if laid hold of, is efficacious in healing and sav- 
ing the soul. 

What we wish to bring to view here, is the idea or 
belief that the unoffending infants were " obnoxious 
to both the guilt and punishment of Adam's sin;" 
this being the great flaw and folly of the church 
creeds, through long ages. The flaw, because of its 
falsity and injustice; and the folly, because of the 
endless errors and disputes to which it has led. Out 
of this notion the idea of a partial atonement readily 
burst forth, and the volumes written for and against 
such an idea of the atonement, have been multiplied 
and scattered abroad in nameless numbers. The one 
side maintaining that inasmuch as all were hopelessly 
lost, there was no injustice in leaving any part un- 
helped; it being simple and abounding mercy that any 
at all were lifted out of their dreadful dilemma. And 
the other side claiming that " as many as were made 
sinners by the crime of Adam, were restored to the 
condition of salvation by the death of Christ;" "and 
inasmuch as every individual of the race was reached 
by the guilt of the one, therefore every individual was 
reached by the grace and pity of the other." This 
last argument certainly has common justice on its 
side, and quite as much so the testimony of the scrip- 
tures. The only fault we observe in the theory being 
the endorsement of the notion that the guilt of Ad- 
am's sin fell down to the posterity, i. <?., the idea that 
the children were sinners in any real sense as a conse- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 157 

quence of the garden crime.* But we shall. have occa- 
sion to refer to this point again, and will pursue it no 
further here ; our task in hand being to reconcile the 
condition of the world as we find it, with the justice 
or goodness of the infinite Creator. And if we find 
it very difficult to make a fair case for justice in the 
transaction, when we take the ground that no being 
of the human family is guilty, or in the least degree 
" subject to wrath " until they commit willful and 
personal sin; then we certainly shall not need to add 
palpable cruelty and injustice to the case simply be- 
cause councils and creeds have favored such a pro- 
cedure. That the world, and all the living beings in 
it, are affected by the sin of Adam and Eve, seems 
plain to reason as well as a doctrine of revelation; be- 
side its being the very best key within human reach, 
to this Problem of Evil, which we wish so much to 
solve. Again, that men are born depraved, i. e., with 
a predisposition to act wickedly, is also the declara- 
tion of scripture, as well as a fact of experience. And 
now, why these apparent ills have been allowed to 
reach the children in all the tribes of men, and through 
all the ages of time, is the question to be answered. 
Dr. Shedd's theory is that we (the race) were in Ad- 
am, and committed the garden sin ourselves, and are 
therefore born corrupt, and hence it is but justice 

* Dr. D. D. Whedon has nobly put himself upon the record against 
this notion to a large extent; but we see no explanation of the fact 
that the wail of sorrow comes up from so many innocent lips in all 
the abodes of men; nor any cause given why it has done so through 
all the long eras of time. 



158 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

that suffering and sorrow should be upon us. Dr. 
Hodge says Adam was our legal representative, and 
as such did the evil deed of the garden for us — in 
our stead ; and hence we are corrupt, guilty and suffer. 
Another theory which comes to us from a high theo- 
logical position is that: 

"The introduction of death and all our woe into the world, as 
the consequence of the first sin, is made consistent with our ideas of 
right and justice and honor in God, by the necessary and natural 
law of propagation, i. e., the law that like begets its like. 11 

These, it seems, are the best answers which the 
press and the pulpit have for us. Rather, are the 
only keys generally given to our question, which are 
worthy of being mentioned. And these leave the 
question just where they found it; i. e., in mystery, 
or, as a matter of " divine sovereignty." For, ist, If 
we had no hand in our creation and knew nothing of 
the deed of Adam at the time it was done ; and, 2d, If 
we had no voice in the appointment of Adam as a rep- 
resentative, then, the condition of our creation and 
the appointment of a representative (if we had such), 
were arbitrary acts, or acts of sovereignty, and what- 
ever acts were done then and there, were in no sense 
our acts, any more than the act of God in the creation 
of Adam was our act. Therefore, we could not, in 
justice, be accountable for any of the consequences 
arising from those acts; and hence the punishment 
due (if due to any one), was not due to us. Or, in 
the words of another: " We might just as well say that 
God is sovereign and might have made all men 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 159 

wicked at the first; it is just as competent that He 
should have made us wicked, as that by His appoint- 
ment He should have made us so through the process 
of representation." Hence, in this view, the whole 
matter lies in the hand of God; or at the door of 
Heaven. And as to the "law of propagation," we 
may say just the same of it as is said of represent- 
ation; i. e., it is just as competent that God should 
have made us wicked, as that by His appointment He 
should have made us so, through a " law of propag- 
ation," or through any law which has been con- 
stituted and arranged by a sovereign act of his hand. 
Here, then, it seems, is the end, or the best and the 
last light which the theological world have for us. 
At least this is all we find proffered, and this really 
appears a small light indeed, if in fact it may be 
called a light as touching the question in hand. 

And now the inquiry is, What are we to do in all 
this wilderness of thought when our guides thus fail 
us, or come to a dead stand still? It seems that there 
should be a path through — that we should be able to 
make out some plausible reason, at least, why calam- 
ity has thrown its dark wing over the abodes of men, 
and why trouble, like a deluge, has wrapped the world 
in its weeping folds. For, if the above explanations 
are the best that can be given of this wonderful Prob- 
lem of Evil, then " mystery " is a word too poor and 
weak indeed to express the cloudy condition of the 
affair. In other words, if these are the best reasons 
which the mind of man can furnish (either with or 



160 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

without the scheme of redemption), for the loss, pain, 
and privation which now dog the steps of mortals, 
and haunt and hang along the path of their pilgrim- 
age as they journey to the tomb; then the eye of 
human reason is dim indeed, and the clouds and fogs 
of doubt have gathered like night over earth, and 
faith and intuition alone must cheer the path of man 
and lead him at length to his home on high. 

But, can we go no further? Is it a fact that which- 
ever way we look or turn to-day, the same dreaded 
difficulty which has confronted human thought and 
defied human reason through all the faded centuries 
of time, lies like a mighty mountain ridge, across our 
path? 

We have seen that it was just here that Drs. Shedd, 
Hodge and others, with all their wonderful and 
eulogized power of penetration, halted, waited — and 
finally proposed to tunnel this mountain in the man- 
ner above described, but failed entirely, except in 
fancy, to gain the other side — failed entirely to reach 
the end proposed, namely, to account for time's trou- 
bled wail, without involving the character of the 
Creator in doubt or suspicion, less or more. And to 
think of involving the Creator in injustice, is to put out 
our own lights, and is bold, if not blasphemous work, 
sure, and we may well pause. But the history of this 
difficulty tells plainly — readily — where the tide of 
reason would drift us; and how, like a skiff in a foam- 
ing trough of the sea, human thought struggles with 
the multitudinous and shadowy foldings of the case. 



OE, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 161 

But let ns go quietly back to the garden of Eden 
again and survey that ground anew. The precious 
Bible, like the star which hung along the heavens, to 
guide the shepherds to the natal manger of the Babe 
of Bethlehem, will go before us and lead and cheer 
the way thither. Ah, more ! it will throw a glad and 
a gracious light over the entire scene, and aid us as 
no other book can possibly do in fixing the points and 
deciding the boundary lines, or the facts involved. 

And by this we are reminded of a prophecy of 
Thomas Paine in respect to the Bible, which was that 
" soon it would be found no more in the abodes of 
men." But, poor scoffing man, lost and bewildered, 
as he was, in the frightful fog of the French infidelity, 
knew very little of the value of that book; and little 
thought that, when his body would be laid away with 
silence and the worms, steam power under the direc- 
tion of faithful Christian hands, would scatter Bibles 
over the world, in scores of languages, like blessed 
rain drops from the sweet summer's clouds. Ah ! 
yes, poor man, indeed; and his last days, and es- 
pecially his dying hour, told too plainly his sad mis- 
take. And when we reflect how he labored to uproot 
the religion of the Bible — how, in the lowest lan- 
guage his lips could frame, he reviled the sacred 
record and the Eedeemer of his race — we do not 
wonder that no burial service was read at his grave, 
and no benediction pronounced over his cold clay. 
And we scarcely wonder that the sexton, when no one 
else had a tear to shed or a word to say, should, with 
11 



162 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

his hands held low over the little mound of earth, 
just then rounded up, exclaim: 

" Poor Tom. Paine! here he lies; 
Nobody laughs, nobody cries; 
Where he's gone or how he fares, 
Nobody knows and nobody cares." 

And now, that more than three-fourths of a century 
has gone by since that famous and yet foolish prophe- 
cy of Paine's was made in regard to the Bible, we are 
thankful and happy indeed still to have the same 
priceless pages to consult and the same grand record 
to read. And with this book, and thus, in thought, 
standing with Adam and Eve, immediately after their 
fall and prior to the bestowment of grace through a 
promised Christ (as revealed to us by this book), we 
Hx upon the following conclusions: /. That the con- 
dition of Adam and Eve at that moment was a sad 
and desperate condition indeed; 2. That the Creator 
was not obliged to redeem the fallen pair; j. That if 
the Creator had decided, then or before, not to redeem 
them, there never would have been a Cain and Abel 
born to them — that is, Adam and Eve would have had 
no posterity whatever; ^. That if there had been no 
posterity, we, as individuals, could not have had ex- 
istence; and, 5. That if Adam and Eve had not been 
redeemed, then they would not have died a temporal 
death. 

These five conclusions will each, perhaps, need a 
word of explanation to make them clear to the reader. 
The first and second rest upon the multiplied and con- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 163 

tinued declarations of the Scriptures in regard to 
Adam's condition, and as to God's love and pity so 
manifested in redemption. For if, as some say, Adam 
did not fall into a sad condition, then he did not need 
such extraordinary pity — did not need that God, 
through his great love for man, should give his only 
begotten son to redeem him. And the representation 
that, " when we were yet without strength, in due 
time, Christ died for the ungodly," is not a correct 
representation. Hence, whoever makes the statement 
that the condition of Adam, the moment after his sin, 
was not a sad and desperate one, or makes the state- 
ment that God was under obligation to redeem Adam 
from that condition, contradicts both reason and rev- 
elation — contradicts both God and nature. The 
single passage which tells us that " God commend- 
eth his love toward us, in that, while we were 
yet sinners, Christ died for us," alone by itself would 
show both that we greatly needed a Redeemer, and 
that " God provided himself a lamb " (according to 
the prophecy of Abraham), because of his pity and 
love, and not because it was a matter of duty or obli- 
gation. And the idea that the sin of Adam was not 
a terrible sin — a flagrant and high-handed crime 
against Heaven, would break both wings of hope at a 
single blow — would leave us without any key what- 
ever to this problem of pain, and make it utterly im- 
possible to explain the dealings of God toward the 
race — in short, ■ would crowd us into the darkest 
night of despair, in our reflections, and make earth a 



164 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

loathsome and weeping dungeon. Hence, no man 
who loves his race and knows what he is doing, will 
advance or advocate such an idea. 

Why, if the condition of Adam, after his sin, was 
not fearful, and if his redemption therefrom was not 
the highest exhibition of benevolence, then the ap- 
pearance of the angels to the shepherds on the plains 
of Bethlehem, and the wonderful song which they 
sang, was all a sublime farce — a ruse or theatrical of 
the skies. But such an idea is a bold dash of folly, 
and should be abandoned at once. 

The third conclusion, i. e., that " there would have 
been no children in Adam's family, if there had been 
no Redeemer provided," is but a corollary, or natural 
deduction of the two former conclusions. For, if 
Adam had sunken himself so low — if his moral 
condition was so corrupt as that then (as well as now) 
" God out of Christ was a consuming fire," and if his 
child must have been likewise corrupt and likewise 
hopeless, except through the aid and interference of a 
Redeemer, then justice must have sternly and steadi- 
ly demanded that no hopeless progeny be allowed 
Adam and Eve; i. e., that they should have no chil- 
dren until the means of their moral safety was pro- 
vided for, if not plainly promised. We have no his- 
tory of any country, or any knowledge of any niche 
or nook, of God's great empire, where demons are 
nursed — where fiends and furies are born. And, our 
ideas of God, will not allow us to entertain the thought 
a single moment, that he would permit any beings, in 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 165 

all His wide domain, to come into existence (as they 
surely must) without their choice, or consent, except 
that the means of their happiness and eternal safety 
and salvation would be placed in their hands, or with- 
in their easy and ready reach. Hence, we are firm in 
the conviction that, but for a promised Christ, there 
would have been no Cain or Abel — been no sons or 
daughters of Adam and Eve at all. And then our 
fourth conclusion, namely, that, if there had been no 
children in Adain's family ', we, as individuals would 
have had no existence, seems so plain and self-evident 
that it hardly appears to require either argument or 
proof to aid or induce its adoption in any thoughtful 
mind. For, suppose God had removed Adam and 
Eve to some other globe, after their sin, instead of re- 
deeming them, and had placed a new pair of human 
beings upon the earth to increase and spread abroad 
here. Now, the question is, would any one of those 
inhabitants have been yourself? Could any one of 
them have been myself? Of course every sane man 
says no, for the simple and yet stubborn reason that 
the child of James is not the child of James' brother 
John; or that two different things are not the same 
thing. Hence, we readily fall in with the conclusion, 
that but for the redemption of Adam, we should not 
have been born — should not have had existence. 
(Here, now, let us drive down a stake and mark it 
" existence") Now this being settled, the next ques- 
tion is whether this existence, taken as a whole of course, 
is a blessing, or a curse. If it is a curse, that is, if it 



166 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

is a curse, in and of itself, and irrespective of what we, 
as agents, do in releation to it, then we may find 
fault with our Creator for allowing or giving us this 
existence. But, if we insinctively rejoice in ex- 
istence — if we think more of conscious being than of 
all other things put together, then, our complaints 
in this respect should never be heard. In other 
words, suppose that we could have known beforehand, 
just what life is, with all its changes and sorrows, to- 
gether with its joys and privileges (and the hopes of 
immortality) and, that the choice was given us, either 
to have or not to have existence under the circum- 
stances. Now, knowing what we do of ourselves, and 
of the human family, as to the love of life — the joy 
of being and acting, would we not at once ^ have said 
give us being — by all means give us being? If we 
would, and it seems clear that we certainly would, 
then all complaint in respect to existence is at an 
end — is shut out forever; and the complaints, if 
there are any, must rest upon some lack of provision 
for, or some unnecessary embarrassment to, our hap- 
piness in this existence. And just here, it seems, 
rests to-day our entire question as to the " Problem of 
Evil" — the wish for more happiness and the pre- 
vention of pain and loss. The case is something like 
that of the boy to whom a valuable and beautiful 
farm had been given by his father, and which the boy 
received with great gladness and prized highly; but, 
yet, complained to his brothers because his father had 
not so fixed the farm as that it would not need Ids 



167 

care and culture — would not need his oversight and 
attentions. 

This complaint of the boy, however, we all say at 
once, was very unreasonable, if not very ungrateful 
and wicked. Just as though, the gift of the farm, 
was not a sufficient index of parental love and well- 
wishing; and just as though, a lad would be more 
likely than his experienced father, to know, not only 
what was the very best gift, but also the best time 
and conditions of giving it. 

And right here, we might rest this question of 
moral evil safely, as far as human trusts and hopes 
are concerned, but, in a subsequent chapter * we pro- 
pose to try andjmravel the tangled skein a little more. 
But we must now notice our fifth or remaining con- 
clusion. 

* Chapter XIV. 



168 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE CAUSE AND OBJECT OF TEMPORAL DEATH. 

Temporal Death not a Penalty of Sin — Not in the Threat to Adam — 
Adam and Eve would not have Died, Temporally, but for the 
Atonement — (The Second Stake) — The Facts of Geology — A 
Supposition as to Inhabitants on the Earth before Adam — The 
Terror of Death tends to keep men from taking their own lives — 
The Bodies of Men raised if the Bible be True. 

Our fifth conclusion (page 162) was, that if, after 
the sin of the garden no Redeemer had been provided, 
Adam and Eve would not have died a temporal death. 
This, perhaps, to many persons, may seem like a wild 
statement, and out of the reach of any manner of 
proof. But let us go around to the other side of the 
idea, and it will not look so uncertain and dreamy. 
For there we shall get out of the fog of preconceived 
notions somewhat. In other words, the great reason 
why we so naturally think that Adam and Eve would 
have died temporally even if they had not been re- 
deemed, is doubtless because we have been taught that 
temporal death was a part of the penalty threatened 
Adam. John Calvin, Richard Watson, Adam Clark, 
Joseph Benson, and a long list of other great and re- 
vered men, taught this idea and incorporated it into 
their works ; but the idea, upon close scrutiny, appears 
impossible in itself, and incompatible with the Bible 
teaching; or else we have entirely mistaken that 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 169 

teaching. For instance, the great burden of the Jew- 
ish sacrifices and of the New Testament teaching in 
relation to the merit of the atonement (as probably all 
will readily admit) is this: that Christ took the sin- 
ner's cnp of punishment — "died for us" — died in 
our place and stead, etc. Therefore, if temporal death 
was a part of the penalty for the garden sin, and if that 
penalty was laid upon Christ, or if He took it and 
bore it away, then how does it happen that Adam died 
after all? Christ certainly bore away that type of 
spiritual death which lay upon Adam and Eve in the 
hour of their sin; so that now there is no such type of 
moral death upon any man, or known among men; 
neither can there be such a death, as we shall at length 
see.* Then, why was not temporal death taken away 
also? Again, if there would have been no posterity 
but for Christ, and hence no death among that pos- 
terity but for Him, then, instead of his death prevent- 
ing temporal death among the posterity of Adam, it 
was the occasion, or the permissive cause of their dy- 
ing. That is, He died that they might live and die; 
therefore, in this sense, he died that they might die. 
This seems to reverse the very order of things ; but 
the fault is in confounding the two deaths involved; 
i. e., spiritual death and temporal death. Hence, if 
temporal death was a part of the penalty for Adam's 
transgression, then Christ's death brought the poster- 
ity under this penalty rather than redeemed them 
from it, which is contrary to justice, reason and scrip- 
*Chap. 17, sec. 6. 



170 

ture. Therefore it cannot possibly be that temporal 
death was a part of the penalty threatened Adam. 
And yet it is doubtless true that if Adam had not 
sinned, his progeny would not have been depraved — 
would not have suffered — would not have died. 
And in this way temporal death came by sin; 
not as a penalty, however, but as a consequence. And 
it is just as true that if Adam had not sinned, Christ 
would not have died. Here is another consequence 
(the death of Christ) which, at first sight at least, 
seems to wear an entirely different face, while in real- 
ity it is the root and the reason for the other. That 
is, in the plan of human recovery it was arranged that 
the posterity should die a temporal death, and, as 
without the atonement, there would have been no pos- 
terity to die, hence temporal death, as to the posterity, 
was dependent upon the death of Christ. (Here let us 
drive down another stake and mark it " temporal 
death.") And if God would not have redeemed Adam, 
except in view of his posterity, then the two events na- 
turally belong together, and neither would have been 
without the other. So that if temporal death was a 
penalty at all, we see that as regards the posterity it was 
a redeemed penalty. Now we can form some sort of an 
idea of what a redeemed soul may be, or a redeemed 
house, or heritage; but what a redeemed penalty may 
be, we cannot easily imagine. In other words, we have 
no reason for crediting such a notion, and much less a 
reason for advocating a theory which makes such an 
act necessary. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 171 

Again, inasmuch as all the arrangements of the 
scheme of atonement originated in infinite goodness 
and infinite wisdom, each and every part of that 
scheme, considering the circumstances, must have 
been merciful, wise and good. But one of the parts 
of that scheme was that the posterity should die a 
temporal death. Hence, temporal death, as to the 
posterity, was a merciful arrangement, and as such 
could not he a " suspended penalty," or any other 
penalty hanging over their heads.* And if, as appears 
from the foregoing facts and arguments, physical 
death was purely a matter of the atonement, then, 
had there been no atonement, Adam and Eve would 
not have died a physical death.* Or, to reach the 
same conclusion in another way, if Adam's body was 
originally intended to accompany him through eter- 
nity; and if the Creator certainly would not allow it 
to die and decay, simply to gather it up and organize 
it again, then, if there had been no redemption for 
Adam, he would not have died a physical death. 

The above argument, like every argument of the 
kind, is based upon the teachings of revelation, for 
the simple reason that no argument of any reliability 
or value can be drawn from nature, either for the con- 
tinuance of the soul or the body beyond the boundary 
of this life. Reason, as before stated, goes with us to 
the coffin, and refuses to light us beyond ; that is, re- 
fuses to give us any assurance that we shall live be- 
yond. If it does anything for us in relation to the 
* Fall and Rescue, p. 22. 



172 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

future, either by analogy or otherwise, it is to assure 
us that there is no future for either soul or body. 
Again, this question as to Adam's physical death (pro- 
vided there had been no atonement) has, as all will 
readily see, an intimate relation to the resurrection of 
the dead, as well as to the question, wmether man 
would have died if he had not sinned. As to the 
latter, we would reason from present appearances that 
he would have died. But the data from which we 
draw this conclusion has all been effected and changed, 
if not measurably made, by the lapse of the race, and 
hence really proves nothing as to what would, or 
would not, have been, provided there had been no sin. 
" The Testimony of the Rocks," upon this point, as it 
is called, or the testimony of the earth, as read to us 
by geologists, will, to many, probably, seem to say 
that death was in the world long before the days of 
Adam and Eve. But, if we canvass the whole matter 
in a careful manner, and take into the account the 
fact that geological research has as yet been only par- 
tial and fragmentary, and hence is subject to indefi- 
nite and multiplied revisions, changes and corrections, 
we shall see that it may yet be found that the general 
evidence in respect to this question will prove just 
the contrary of what present appearance would indi- 
cate. If, in its general outline, the earth was made 
as we now find it, then it will be impossible for us to 
reconcile its condition with the goodness or the in- 
finite benevolence of the Creator. For evidently it is 
not fitted up for the residence of pure beings ; but for 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 173 

that of impure. Again, if it has undergone great 
changes — if, evidently, it is not the world it was 
when the Creator rolled it pure and perfect from His 
wonder-working hands ; then the rapidity with which 
these changes have been made, and the manner in 
which they have been made, must be ascertained 
somewhat before we can accurately estimate the time 
since the earlier of them occurred. And if we know 
that some of them have been wrought in a very brief 
period, and must have been the result of a miraculous 
power, and if all the important ones may have been 
of this character, then we shall not need even six 
thousand years for the production of what the rocks 
contain as memorial to those events and changes. If 
we say that through an indefinite series of eons, or 
ages, prior to man, and of course prior to sin, the 
beasts and reptiles lived, suffered, contended and died, 
then we ought to be able to give some reason for this 
their condition and proclivities, as well as for the 
pain and injustice which many of them evidently 
suffered. 

Of course we can suppose that this arrangement 
went before as a prophecy respecting man and his 
sin, and we can suppose too that this supposition is 
an insult to God, or, a thrust at the character of the 
Creator; and hence does not relieve, or explain the 
matter in the least, but rather involves it more and 
more. For, if the Creator set the animals to tearing 
each other to pieces — set them at war continually, or 
even left them to worry, pain and waste each other, 



174 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

when, as yet, no earthly hand had been lifted up 
against his authority or laws, then we do not know 
what he will do next. Again, if the discord and suf- 
fering among the brutes is in any way a result of sin, 
and if they suffer to show to man how evil and hate- 
ful sin is in the eye of the pure and perfect Creator, 
then surely the suffering and discord ought to follow, 
and not to precede the sin. At least, if we assume that 
death was here before sin, simply because we cannot 
quite explain the rocks without such an assumption, 
we are in duty bound to give some reason for the long 
groan which thus went before sin, it being by far a 
deeper and darker riddle than the rocks themselves 
present. For, we can readily imagine that the earth 
had been peopled before Adam was placed here, and 
that for some cause the inhabitants had been removed, 
and the beasts destroyed, in or previous to the remod- 
eling of the earth for man, and hence the geological 
phenomena. Now this state of things is easily imag- 
ined; but it is not easy to see how the condition of 
the reptiles and brutes through such protracted peri- 
ods, as many claim for the earth and the brutes, can 
be reconciled with infinite justice. In other words, if 
we must tax our powers of explanation to the utmost 
to explain the suffering and condition of the brutes 
in a rebellious and sin -cursed world, then the task to 
explain their suffering in a sinless world will be quite 
too much for our ability, surely, and the attempt is 
folly. Then whatever theory would drive us upon 
either horn of the preceding dilemma, that is, suffer- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 175 

ing without sin, and suffering before sin, should be 
suspected, if not abandoned at once. And especially 
while the best light that has shone on the race — the 
best teacher known to man, informs us that " by one 
man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." 
As much as to say, death was not here until sin was 
here, and never would have been here if sin had not 
come here. And also that sin was not here until man 
was here. Now, if man has been here over six thou- 
sand years, then we know nothing of the time when 
he was placed here, nor of the condition in which he 
was placed here; nor much of what he has done, or of 
what has been done for him since that day or period; 
and this would make things look dark indeed. The 
physical world may have its mysteries, and some of 
these mysteries may defy explanation, and yet no one 
need fear ; but when our hopes as men — when our 
trust in the kindness of the Creator is involved, we 
may do well to pause — may wisely look our theories 
in the face again, and survey the grounds on which 
they stand. We are often told that what the brutes 
suffer is not much — not worthy of notice; but this 
does not seem a wise theory, or according to fact. 
They certainly make a noise, or scream when injured, 
just as a child or a man does, and seem to be in pain 
just the same. And surely it cannot be proven that 
they feign it. It must be pain. And pain among 
innocent beings is the problem we are trying to solve. 
You will see at once that if the Creator, without some 
adequate cause, inflicts, or intentionally arranges so as 



176 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

that pain is inflicted upon the innocent to-day, He 
may do it to-morrow — may do it forever. For, if it 
is not wrong to do so to-day, why will it be wrong in 
any day to come — in any period, or to any extent % 

Thus, as the least aperture in a dam naturally 
jeads the way to the ruin of the entire structure, so 
the admission of the principle that the innocent may 
be made to suffer without a cause for that suffering, 
naturally leads to the utter wreck of the best hopes a 
mortal can entertain. Hence, we readily hurry back 
to the Bible idea, that " sin is the bad root of all our 
woe," and that "death entered the world by sin.'- 
Again, at first thought it may appear singular, or 
unkind that man is doomed to die — that it was ar- 
ranged that his body should remain on earth until 
the final day of judgment and complete reward. It 
may seem, too, that the pains usually preceding death, 
the accidents, fear and annoyances which often attend 
the soul as it goes out of its clayey casket, are not 
wisely ordered — not kindly arranged. And we may 
wonder that it was not so planned that, like Elijah, 
the chariots of the skies might come (when we are to 
go) and bear us away to the land of everlasting rest 
and joy. Yet the present arrangement is doubtless 
a wise and merciful one in every respect, for creatures 
weakened and blinded by the Fall. For, were there 
no mysterious river of death to cross — no possibility 
of shadows or danger beyond, we should doubtless 
wish to fly away whenever the storm of time might 
beat heavily upon us — should not be willing to 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 177 

still cling to the oar and toil on in the roaring and 
rude tempest of time, as the desire to be gone would 
become a passion — a frenzy — the all absorbing 
thought and wish of the soul. Hence, if there is no 
reason, as pertains to the material of the globe on 
which we dwell, why the bodies of men should die and 
be buried until the final day, there is one as regards 
man himself and his work in the world. In fact, 
with all the pains and doubts which hang about death, 
and the darkness with which reason alone must ever 
invest the future, still, many in the trials and disap- 
pointments of life, rush out of time — go uncalled for 
and rashly to the mystic shore of the dead. And, 
as though it was their privilege to leave the task of 
time at any period they pleased, and in any condition 
whatever, they foolishly seem to think with the 
musing suicide: 

" Man hath no rest nor hope of peace, 
Except the hand the soul release. 1 ' 

Or, what is nearly equivalent, in the opposite direc- 
tion, when the mind has had, or seems to itself to 
have had, a sweet look over into the bright land of 
joy and song, it feels as did the sick and wasting 
child after a glorious dream, when it said: 

" Now sing, mama, for I fain would sleep, 
And dream as I dreamed before ; 
For sound was my slumber and sweet was my rest, 
While my spirit in the mansions of life was a guest; 
And the heart that has throbbed in the climes of the blest, 
Can love this world no more." 
12 



178 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL*, 

In the one case, the tossed bark of life seems to 
have swamped in waves of woe too high and wide to 
see beyond — seems to be going down with its leaden 
load of grief and gloom, with its burden of dire de- 
spair. And in the other, the soul appears to have 
caught such glad and glorious glimpses of the golden 
shore, as to make this world but a prison-house of 
pain, strife and weariness; and hence, unendurable 
and repulsive to the last degree. Thus we discover 
that man in his normal condition walks between these 
two extremes, despair and ecstasy. Now, pushing up 
toward the one, and now, falling back toward the 
other — now, with a face convulsed with laughter 
and a heart flooded with joy; and now, with a bosom 
heaving with sorrow and eyes swimming in tears. 

But, we hasten to touch briefly the scripture doc- 
trine of the resurrection, having thus far, in this chap- 
ter, assumed (after the Bible language) "that there 
shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just 
and unjust." Acts, 24: 5. Yet, some have assumed 
and loudly proclaimed the opinion, ist, That " the soul 
will have no need of the body in a future state;" 2cl, 
That "a resurrection would be impossible, because 
the same matter would often be claimed by two or 
more persons," etc. 

Now, as to the first, it is proper to ask, how it has 
been ascertained that the soul will have no need of 
the body in a future state? For if, as we have found, it 
is impossible for human reason to pry open the gates 
of the future; impossible for it to see over into that 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 179 

clime — on to that realm; then, in all candor, how 
can it decide, as to what the soul may, or may not 
need, on that unseen and untrodden shore? We an- 
swer, it never can decide such a question, and it is 
brazen folly to attempt it. In other words, it is the 
Bible alone that can give us a description of the spirit 
land; and it, alone, that can tell us in full what we shall 
take there, what we shall need there, and what we shall 
find there. Hence, whatever mere reason may say is 
childish prattle and unworthy of notice. The ques- 
tion then is this, Does the Bible teach the doctrine of 
the resurrection of the body? If it does, then the 
debate is ended; and if it does not, then Inspiration 
is very unfortunate in the language chosen in relation 
to the subject. For instance, it says of Enoch, " He 
was not, for God took him;" and that " Elijah was 
parted from Elisha by a chariot of fire and horses of 
fire, and went up by a whirlwind into Heaven." 
Again, when the Savior said to Martha, " Thy brother 
shall rise again," the body must have been referred 
to, and he was knowing that Martha and the Jews 
generally believed in the resurrection of the body. 
And, if they were in error in that respect, it would 
seem very unkind to use such language to them; 
would seem wrong, indeed, not to tell them of their 
error. And, especially so, when Martha said, " I 
know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at 
the last day;" which language, without any question, 
referred solely to the body; referred to that which 
was, as she supposed, decaying (i. e., the body having 



180 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL J 



" been dead four days "), and was the very same that 
came forth at Christ's command, bound in grave 
clothes. ]STow, if by the word resurrection the Sa- 
vior did not mean the reappearing of the body, then 
it is not only difficult, but absolutely impossible to 
tell what he did mean. Those who knew him best; 
those who understood his language best, and were 
there on the ground, understood him to mean that 
the bodies of all men should rise up again; that " all 
that are in their graves," in the day of His future 
coming, " shall hear his voice and come forth ; they 
that have done good unto the resurrection of life and 
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of dam- 
nation." John, 5:28. 

And men, long before Christ, had full faith in the 
resurrection of the body. Job said: "Though after 
my skin (death) worms destroy this body; yet, in my 
flesh shall I see God, whom I shall see for myself, 
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though 
my reins be consumed within me." Job, 19:26, 27. 
Thus, away back in the years when the eyes of the 
prophets and of the nations were trustingly and yet 
anxiously looking forward for the coming Christ (to 
some at least), the idea of the resurrection was clear, 
and the belief therein firm and happy indeed. Job 
does not say " I think" but " I know that my Re- 
deemer liveth," etc. In Acts, 2 : 31, speaking of Christ, 
it is said: " His soul was not left in hell (Hades, or 
place of departed spirits), neither his flesh did see cor- 
ruption" Hence, if the Bible means anything that 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 181 

we can understand it is that Christ went away with his 
soul and body to Heaven and is set down at the right 
hand of God to make intercession for us. At least 
the teaching is that his body (the matter) was raised 
from the dead and was never to be corrupted. The 
teaching also is that the same matter that was laid 
in the grave was " brought again from the dead." 
Now, if we put this with Paul's repeated statements 
as to the resurrection — his continual affirmations re- 
specting the body, that it is sown in corruption but 
raised in incorruption ; and especially, if we put it 
with the statement that Christ's body was " the first 
fruits of them that slept," then the resurrection of the 
bodies of men must seem as certain as the fact that 
Christ was raised. For, the first fruits, every Jew 
and many Gentiles knew, were like, and a pledge of 
the harvest. And, in keeping with this idea, Paul 
tells us that Christ, at his coming, shall change our 
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his 
glorious body. Philip, 3:21. This, it would seem, 
ought to be enough to satisfy any man who has not 
the art of making the Bible read as he wishes it to 
read — to any one who comes to it as to an instructor, 
simply seeking to learn what it teaches. 2d. As to 
the question often presented, whether, in certain 
cases, the same matter may not belong to the bodies 
of two or more men, and hence that a resurrection 
might be imperfect, or impossible. But we see no 
difficulty in this respect, while we recognize God as 
the great maker, owner and director of matter. And 



182 

certainly no difficulty in the case until it is proven 
that certain matter does belong to two or more dead 
bodies. True, if we had the material of the different 
bodies of men to look after ourselves, it would be a 
tedious and terrible task — would be a mammoth work 
indeed, but not so with God, with him all is easy, 
indeed. 

Hence, the only question to be asked or thought of 
in this case, or any other, of a kindred character, is 
this: How does God wish it to be? What does he 
tell us? This arises from the fact that at the touch 
of his finger iron swims, floods sink, or rise; and dis- 
ease and death instantly bow themselves out — at his 
nod brutes talk like men, water stands up like a wall 
of marble, and a handful of meal in a barrel is an 
Egypt of corn for any number of persons named, and 
for any length of time required. Why, the philoso- 
phy that stumbles at this tiny pebble in the path 
— this plain revealment as to the resurrection of the 
body, would never shut lions' mouths in the world — 
would never get Peter out of prison nor lead the 
frightened hosts of Israel in safety through the 
depths of the Red Sea. No, no never. And the 
reason is that it is a philosophy of little faith or no 
faith — an infidel philosophy. The fact of the resur- 
rection of the bodies of men may seem miraculous; 
and that it seems so, no one need deny any more than 
they need deny that the fact, that apples, pears and 
plums are each produced from the same soil; or, that 
the union of spirit and matter in man, is wonderful, 
or miraculous. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 183 



CHAPTEE XIY. 

REDEMPTION AND ITS RESULTS IN RESPECT TO 
MORAL EVIL. 

The Propriety of Making Moral Beings— The Changes God Made 
in the Earth to fit it for Fallen Adam — " Moral Evil " — {The 
Third Stake) — All Three Grow out of the Plan of Redemption — 
Where the Lights of Infidelity go out — No Part of the Penalty 
for Adam's Sin has Reached the Posterity, nor any Imputation 
of that Sin — Adam and Eve not Exposed to Eternal Death 
until Redeemed by Christ. 

In a preceding chapter * the conclusion was reached 
that if we could have been consulted upon the ques- 
tion of existence or nonexistence, i. e., the question of 
sharing existence in the circumstances in which we 
have been placed, or of being left out of existence, we 
should have said, give us being, with the ills and 
chances of the same. We also came to the conclu- 
sion that if we, as individuals, were to have being, we 
must be the sons of Adam. 

Putting these two conclusions together throws this 
question of moral evil, as respects the Creator, back 
upon one of two points: ist. The impropriety of 
making moral beings, like Adam and Eve; or, 2d. A 
fault in not repairing the fractures in their character 
produced by the sin of the garden. 

To many minds these two points may not seem 
* Chapter XII. 



184: THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

to embrace the whole difficulty — may not seem to 
touch the physical derangements and casualties which 
so much effect the race in general, and so much effect 
certain individuals in particular; but by a careful 
analysis of the whole transaction (as given us in the 
Bible history), it appears that after the sin of Adam 
the physical world was rearranged and fitted up to 
suit the condition of man in an imperfect state or 
in a state of depravity and grace. And just how 
much is meant — just what is implied in the words, 
"Cursed is the ground for thy sake;" " In sorrow 
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; " " Thorns 
also and thistles shall it bring forth," — we are not in a 
situation to tell, but we may safely conclude that they 
imply all that is evil in the world, all that the world 
lacks of being good — all it lacks of being good, too, 
in the highest sense of that word; or in the Bible 
language, "very good." But right here we are told 
by an able divine, that " Christ is a remedy for all of 
the evils — all of the difficulties of a depraved and 
fallen nature; " which seems a strange and erroneous 
declaration, for, according to our logic, and according 
to the Bible history, the scheme of redemption tended 
to open (to a multitude of men) the flood-gates of 
tears, and to lengthen the list of earthly sorrows. 
Indeed, when the Creator came to the sinning pair in 
the garden to announce a coming Redeemer, instead of 
promising them a remedy for any existing temporal 
ills, he told Eve he would greatly multiply her sor- 
rows, and told Adam that ills were coming to him in 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 185 

abundance — instead of promising to stay the bitter 
tide of tears — to dry up the deep fountains of earthly 
sorrow — He forewarned them that calamity would 
come, as an unwelcome guest, to the abodes of men, 
and that trouble, like a black mantle, would wrap itself 
around the human heart. And it seems plain from the 
Bible account of this transaction, that it was in con- 
sequence of Adam's moral condition that the earth 
was cursed, and hence plain, that if God had removed 
Adam and Eve from the world instead of redeeming 
them and arranging for them to remain here, the 
earth would not have been thus cursed. Then accord- 
ing to this conclusion, if there had been no redemp- 
tion, this curse would not have been. So that in this 
sense the curse was a part of the plan of redemption. 
And if we know anything of what the Bible means 
in respect to the scheme of human recovery, the plan 
was Heaven-born — was Mercy's first-born — and 
hence was truly good and kind indeed in every par- 
ticular touching the interests of our fallen family. 
Therefore, we may rely upon it, that in some way the 
whole plan has a gracious and a loving eye towards 
us — a parental smile and solicitude for us, whether 
we may be able to fully comprehend the minute bear- 
ings of the plan or not. (Here, then, let us drive 
down another stake, and mark it " moral evil") 
^N"ow we have a row; that is, we have three in a line, 
all growing out of the same cause (the scheme of re- 
demption), and they will guide us in setting any 
number of stakes in either direction in the same line. 



186 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 



The first stake is, out existence, which we admit, or 
claim, is a great or an invaluable blessing;* the 
second is, temporal death; f and this third or last, 
moral evil. The last two can only be known to be 
blesssings through a knowledge of the fall and the 
plan of recovery by Christ. And the knowledge of 
the fall, and also of the grand rescue of the race, is 
an affair of revelation, and not of reason. Hence, 
right here, is where the lights of infidelity have 
always gone out — where reason has invariably stum- 
bled and fallen down exhausted and trembling. 
True, infidels who never think much upon the sub- 
ject — who maintain a hardy and stoical indifference, 
and have their minds fully and foolishly occupied 
with earth and its things, may not feel the cold and 
blank depths of the darkness — may not realize the 
utter wrecklessness and hopelessness of their posi- 
tion; but to those who reason at all accurately, the 
darkness is of a kind that can be felt — a darkness 
that has in it a frightful omen of evil, and tends to 
drive the soul to the Bible for light and direction, if 
not to God for a hand to help. 

Not that men who reject the Bible can be entirely 
destitute of the idea that something is wrong in 
man — something blameable; for it would be impos- 
sible for them to think that all is right, for two rea- 
sons: ist. The sense of ill desert, or guilt common to 
the human soul; that is, conscience (God) charging 
man with fault or delinquency of some kind; and 2d. 
* Page 113. fPage 116. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 187 

The intuition or the direct declaration of God him- 
self to the soul, saying that He is high, holy, just and 
good. And hence, God being thus looked upon as of 
such a character, there must be some reason in man 
why earth, beasts and men are in the troubled and 
contending condition in which they are found.* Thus, 
in this way, an indefinite and confused idea of the 
lapse of the race may and probably does find its way 
into even heathen minds. But such an idea is too 
vague and obscure to answer any purpose in solving 
the Problem of Evil, or reconciling the ways of God to 
man. And hence, thoughtful infidelity always turns 
pale at the reading of the book of nature, by an ex- 
perienced and correct reader of that book. Besides, as 
the heathen mind may gain some little idea of the 
fall, in the way we have just intimated, so perhaps a 
few who are more fully awake than others to their 
delinquencies, before the law which is written on the 
human mind by the spirit of God, and who, while 
they truly regret their want of moral goodness, may 
trustingly look to the " Great Spirit," or to a higher 
power (under whatever form or name), in such a way 
as not only to receive pardon, but also to receive the 
knowledge of that pardon through our Lord Jesus 
Christ.f But returning to the subject in hand, and 
admitting that our existence, together with physical 
death and moral evil, are only here in the world as 
connections and dependents of redemption, or as a 
part of the plan under which Adam and Eve were 
* Axiom 17. tChap. XVII, sec. 2. 



188 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 



raised again to the state of moral agents ; we still need 
some key — some reason why the plan is what it is ; 
i. e., why in this redeeming scheme so much depravity 
and consequent suffering and sorrow have fallen along 
the entire line of the race. The question is not why 
the race was allowed to spread out under the disabili- 
ties of depravity; for we have agreed that existence 
under all these disabilities is a blessing indeed; and 
we are forced to the conclusion that man to be man 
must be an agent — must have the power of choice, 
and therefore be liable to stray from the path of right 
and to fall into mischief and misery through the 
workings of just and yet of inexorable laws.* Hence, 
Adam as an agent, was free to stand or fall — was 
abundantly able to obey the high and holy law under 
which he was placed, while at the same time, of 
course, he had the liberty to act contrary to that law 
if he so determined to do. And hence, and justly, 
when he foolishly chose to disobey, he found the iron 
arms of that law clasping and holding him with won- 
derful power. For as we have intimated, it must be 
carefully borne in mind that Adam's moral condition, 
just after his sin and prior to the bestowment of grace 
under the plan of atonement, was entirely different — 
was even dreadful, compared with his moral state, 
after he had been measurably restored through the 
power and graces of the Holy Spirit under that 
scheme; that is, when full pardon through Christ had 
been proffered to him or placed within his easy reach. 
* Axiom 23. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 189 

And besides, it should be clearly stated here that what- 
ever the effect of the first sin may have been npon 
Adam and Eve, in case they refused pardon through 
Christ, no part of the penalty for their guilt has ever 
reached their offspring. In other words, when Adam 
and Eve were removed from the world and entered 
upon their reward in the after state, the real guilt of 
the garden was disposed of and the books closed up, 
so that no part of the penalty of the garden sin has 
beeiij or ever will he visited upon the race. Although 
in connection with redemption (as before stated again 
and again) certain consequences of that sin have nat- 
urally fallen down upon the posterity. Now this 
statement, as to the penalty of the garden sin, may 
seem like a bold and unwarranted statement to many 
who have for a long period made the thirty-nine arti- 
cles the foundation of their faith; but it seems that 
one single consideration heretofore mentioned will be 
full and abundant proof of the ground taken ; and that 
consideration is, that but for redemption there would 
have been no posterity. 

For, this being admitted, it will follow that if any 
of the guilt of the first sin falls upon the posterity of 
Adam without their consent, Christ is the occasion of 
its falling upon them. Which arrangement, if it 
would be helping guilty Adam to get free from the 
curse of his crimes, would be bringing the innocent 
posterity under the wing and into the slough of guilt; 
which does not appear like common justice even to 
our indulgent eyes. And yet it is undoubtedly true 



190 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL', 

that in the plan of redemption the posterity, as well 
as Adam himself, were considered in respect to the 
high and perfect law originally given to the race. 

For this, in the nature of things, conld not he other- 
wise; since whatever arrangements were then possible 
to be made for Adam and Eve, in respect to that law, 
must reach and effect their posterity — must give or 
refuse the ability to fully keep this original law. And 
now, inasmuch as in the arrangement made for the 
race, no man is able to keep that law; hence, in the 
eyes of that law, all men, even the best Christians, 
must be sadly lacking — must be delinquents, or sin- 
ners; and therefore, in this sense, that is, in the light 
of this law, all men became transgressors; while, on 
the other hand, the law of faith, so happily and per- 
fectly beiitting the fallen state of man, could be kept — 
could be fully and continuously obeyed. Hence, Paul 
to the Romans declares that " what the law could not 
do " {i. e., what man under this law of faith could not 
do in keeping that high law of works) in that he was 
weak through depravity, God sending his own son in 
the likeness of fallen man condemned, or manifested 
the enormity of the garden sin, by becoming a sin 
offering for the race; that the righteousness of that 
high law might be fulfilled through him, and so 
fulfilled, that God " might be just and the justifier of 
him which believe th in Jesus." In other words, 
Christ met the claims of that high law for man down 
to a point where the law of faith would be accepta- 
ble before God — where we could through Christ 



191 

speak and act for ourselves before the throne of purity 
and exacting justice. Hence, it is through this me- 
dium alone that we "have access to God " * — "have 
peace with God." "For there is one God and one 
mediator between God and man, the man Christ- 
Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testi- 
fied in due time."t In other words, "there is none 
other name under Heaven given among men whereby 
we must be saved." And we can conceive of no other 
being, in all the great universe of God, who did or 
could thus take the place of man — who did or could 
so live and labor — so die and intercede, as this same 
Jesus of Nazareth — this prince of Heaven — this 
chosen priest and annointed " Lamb of God." And 
herein, too, we see a reason why (inasmuch as neither 
Adam nor his posterity could obey this high law) 
they, and "all the race of man," through all time, 
should, in this special sense, "appear guilty before 
God" — why we are in the hands of a mediator — 
why all judgment is committed unto the Son — why 
" all men should honor the Son, even as they honor 
the Father," and why "he that honoreth not the Son, 
honoreth not the Father." Thus, it seems that Christ 
brushed the board clean for the posterity, so far as the 
penalty of Adam's sin was concerned, and opened up a 
new and living way to all men by his death and passion. 
And yet the common idea among theologians for many 
ages has been that, in consequence of Adam's federal 
relations to the race, his sin was in some way (directly 
*Eph., 2: 18. tlTim., 2: 5,6. 



192 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

or indirectly) imputed to his posterity — was made 
their sin. Armenius, Calvin, Wesley, Watts, Scott, 
Dodridge, Watson, Clark, Benson and many others 
have adopted this idea with various shadings, excep- 
tions and explanations. And, if by the word sin they 
had meant, not the wrong itself, but the little conse- 
quences or results of this wrong (as connections or rela- 
tives of the atonement in the arrangement of the 
moral affairs of our world after the fall), it would not 
seem so utterly opposed to Scripture and reason — 
would not seem so like a harsh and heartless act of 
injustice or of crushing and cruel sovereignty. For, 
in that view, the terror and the oppression are sifted 
out of it, and the smiles of benignity and of a tender 
and fatherly forbearance beam therefrom. But this 
is not what they mean, as we shall see by referring to 
their writings. 

Armenius, in his Private Disputations, says: 

"Since the tenor of the covenant into which God entered with 
our first parents was this, that if they continued in the favor and 
grace of God, by the observance of that precept and others, the 
gifts which had been conferred upon them should be transmitted to 
their posterity by the like Divine grace which they had received ; 
but if they should render themselves unworthy of those favors, 
through disobedience, that their posterity should likewise be de- 
prived of them, and should be liable to the contrary evils; hence, it 
followed that all men, who were to be naturally propagated from 
them, have become obnoxious to death, temporal and eternal, and 
have been destitute of that gift of the Holy Spirit, or of original 
righteousness. This punishment is usually called a privation of the 
image of God, and original sin." 

In this little quotation from Armenius we have a 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 193 

sample of the belief and teaching of the fathers upon 
the liability of the posterity to eternal punishment for 
Adam's sin. And this liability is what we deny — 
what we propose to show would be unjust. 

If it is a fact that God made a covenant with Adam 
before the fall, as to any effect which his obedience, 
or disobedience, would have upon his posterity, the 
wording of that covenant has not reached us, but if 
it had, it would still wear the terrible feature of in • 
justice; for the reason that the posterity were to be 
obnoxious to eternal death, not for their own, but for 
Adam's sin, not for what they could prevent, help or 
hinder, but for what another might do without their 
knowledge, counsel or consent, which is pure sover- 
eignty, and opposed to every principle of justice and 
equity. If in the outset our Creator could not know 
where the moral bark of Adam would drift; and if 
after the fall, He could not prevent the propagation of 
the race, then there may be some plausibility in the 
idea that the above covenant may have been made 
with Adam ; and there may be something gained by 
the assumption of Calvin that Adam " received and 
lost the jewels for us." But, if God was knowing — 
must have been knowing just what Adam would do 
with anything and everything which was entrusted to 
him; and especially if he could, by a simple motion of 
his hand, have stopped all increase in Adam's family 
forever, then the whole responsibility — the whole lia- 
bility of the posterity to any penalty, and especially 
to such an one as that of eternal death for another's 
13 



194 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 

sin, falls back upon the Creator and must remain just 
there forever. If we ourselves had let Adam have 
the jewels ; or, advised to let him have them, while 
we had any adequate knowledge of what we were 
doing — what the result would be; then the curse 
might justly fall upon us. But, if we did not — could 
not do either — -if we had nothing to do in entrusting 
the jewels to any one, or any knowledge of them, or 
of their value, we are not justly accountable for their 
loss, or liable to disability or punishment therefor. 
And if God entrusted them to any party, who has lost 
them, He ought to see to it (He has seen to it) that 
we are not wronged in the transaction — that we re- 
ceive no injury — no blame (from Him) for the deeds 
of another. The idea that the sin of Adam was im- 
puted to his posterity — or that the penalty to that 
sin is hanging over the race, instead of its falling 
upon Adam and Eve, who committed the sin (or in- 
stead of its being forgiven Adam and Eve, if they 
repented of it), seems to have had its origin in the 
simple fact that in the rescue of Adam and Eve from 
their personal guilt, under the original and high law, 
the offspring were of necessity considered ; or at least 
their existence was involved. And if there would 
have been no posterity, unless Adam had been re- 
deemed, then the results of the garden sin (in this 
sense and in this way — nonexistence), would have 
reached the posterity. 

And added to this or besides this, inasmuch as 
neither Adam nor his posterity were thereafter to 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 195 

possess the ability to obey the original and high law, 
and inasmuch as that law was not repealed, but was 
satisfied for us by Christ, therefore, out of Christ 
that law must ever have a frown for us — must (apart 
from him) ever condemn us. Hence, Paul says, 
Rom., 4: 15: "The law worketh wrath;" and again, 
Gal., 3: 22: "The scripture hath concluded all under 
sin" (i.e., all must fall short before this law); and 
again, in 2 Cor., 4: 15, he says: " If one died for all, 
then were all dead." Thus showing that we were all 
connected with the guilt of the garden, though not 
personally guilty — all, in a sense, interested in the 
fall and in the rescue of Adam and Eve; and yet, 
only really accountable for our own acts. And when 
we thus place the parts of this transaction — thus 
divest it of the superfluous mystery in which it has 
been wrapped, the mountains of difficulty shrink into 
hills, and light breaks along the path of our in- 
quiries. And if (as we have before hinted) it can be 
shown that, instead of removing Adam and Eve from 
the earth after their sin (which would have made our 
existence impossible), God saw best to redeem the 
race — saw best (in view of the grand sacrifice which 
Christ should make in due time) to infuse a new life 
into Adam's dead soul, and yet not to fully restore 
him — if he saw best to give him a new and a gra- 
cious law, with new privileges, promises, inducements 
and helps, and to offer him great and augmented final 
rewards as a prize, or as an offset for the ills, tears 
and trials of time, if he would obey this new law, 



196 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 



then we can see the snn through the clond and dis- 
tinctly hear the Savior say: "Let not your heart be 
troubled;" "It is I be not afraid." ]STow if we go 
back to our quotation again and consider what it is to 
be obnoxious to eternal death, and if we also define 
the term " eternal death" it may seem that Armenius 
was in error, and appear also that Adam and Eve 
were not exposed to eternal death, until after their 
redemption from the guilt of the garden sin. And if 
they were not exposed until then, surely the posterity 
were not. And if evidently Adam and Eve them- 
selves could not be obnoxious to eternal death under 
the new law, except by the sin they might commit 
under that law, then what Mr. Watson tells us in his 
Institutes, vol. II, p. 57, can hardly be correct, either 
as to Adam or his posterity. He says, upon this point, 
after very wisely and plainly stating that the second 
Adam " is a quickening spirit," that 

" As to a future state, eternal life is promised to all men believing 
in Christ, which reverses the sentence of eternal death. * * Should 
this be rejected, he stands liable to the whole penalty — to the 
punishment of loss as the natural consequence of his corrupted na- 
ture, which renders him unfit for heaven; to the punishment of even 
pain for the original offense, we may also, without injustice, say, as 
to an adult, whose actual transgressions, when the means of deliver- 
ance have been afforded him by Christ, is a consenting to all re- 
bellion against God, and to that of Adam himself/ 1 

This quotation from Mr. Watson is the echo of the 
ages upon this subject, and largely defines, it seems, 
the faith of the churches throughout Christendom 
to-day, in respect to the liability of the posterity to 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 197 

eternal death. Hence, to demur and attempt to con- 
trovert this opinion, as we have essayed to do in this 
and in the preceding chapter, is to turn out of the 
beaten path, and to go with the few, the very few. 
And then to go further still and attempt to prove that 
the natural results of depravity are upon us by the 
direct and considerate will of God himself, as prom- 
ised on our 33d page, may seem to many like terrible 
irreverence or bold blasphemy, and hence call out a 
volley of reproof and censure; still believing with 
Bryant, that 

• ' Truth crushed to earth shall rise again — 
The eternal years of God are hers; 
But error wounded, writhes with pain, 
And dies among his worshippers; " 

Therefore, in our next chapter, we propose to show 
this. At least, we propose to pry a little at the gates 
of truth, touching this question, and to find out all 
that is possible for us to know in relation to it. 



198 THE PKOBLEM OF EVIL! 



CHAPTER XY. 

SOURCES AND EFFECTS OF DEPRAVITY. 

The Death threatened Adam was Spiritual Death — Children are 
Born Depraved — The Depravation not to be attributed to their 
Birth as stated by Wesley and Calvin — Comes to us by the 
Arrangement of God Himself — We wait like the Child look- 
ing for its Father to Come and take it Home — The Creator 
goes out into the Night of Sin that we may Exist — A Full 
Recovery of Man here Impossible. 

To put the reader at once in possession of what we 
call the true theory in respect to eternal death, it is 
necessary to say just here, that the penalty to the 
garden sin was spiritual death and not eternal death. 
And it seems that the whole penalty with which God 
threatened Adam, in case he ate the interdicted fruit, 
came upon him the very instant he ate it; if not, in 
fact, the very instant he decided to eat it. And that 
could not be eternal death, surely. We define death 
to be a separation of some sort, or the result of some 
separation. Thus, temporal death is the separation of 
the soul from the body; spiritual death the separation 
of the soul from the loving favor of God, and eternal 
death is that moral condition of the lost which in- 
duces the continued separation of the soul and the 
body from God in a future state. 

The question before us then is whether God, in 
His threat to Adam, meant eternal death or spiritual 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 199 

death. The Bible does not tell us which, in so many 
words, and yet the death threatened was to fall upon 
him in the day he ate the fruit. And, inasmuch as 
neither temporal death nor eternal death visited Adam 
on the day of his sin, and, inasmuch as spiritual 
death did visit him, and he was separated thereby 
from the loving favor of God — from communion and 
fellowship with God that very day, and was afraid of 
God; therefore it seems that Adam knew that the 
promised penalty had reached him; knew that he was 
an alien from God, joy and peace; and hence, foolishly 
tried to hide away among the trees of the garden. 
Some who have felt the force of this argument and 
admitted that the threatened death did find Adam on 
the day of his sin, have claimed that the spiritual 
death which then fell upon Adam would have termi- 
nated in eternal death if he had not been redeemed. 
But this does not seem possible. And the reason 
why it is not possible is, that, after his fall, Adam 
had no law that he could keep, and hence had no law 
that he could break. And if sin is the transgression 
of a law that might be obeyed, then, inasmuch as 
Adam had no law that he could obey or break, he 
could not add to his sin, and thus he was as low as he 
could get under that law. Therefore, if he had lived 
millions of years in that state he would have been no 
more guilty; that is, never could have been more 
deeply involved in guilt. And whatever of evil or 
depravity might have found him in this wrecked con- 
dition would have been the result of the one sin 



200 THE PEOBLEM OF EVIL; 

which threw him into that condition. And now, 
inasmuch as mercy did reach him with all this 
guilt upon him — with all the guilt that could 
be upon him, under that law, therefore it could 
have reached him at any time the Creator might 
have chosen to do so from that hour to this, and so on 
indefinitely if he had not been redeemed. But, if the 
Bible means anything, eternal death is a state which 
the mercy of God cannot reach; and hence, Adam's 
state, after the fall and prior to the bestowment of 
grace in Christ, never could have become eternal 
death, because it would ever have been a state which 
the mercy of God might reach. Again, if spiritual 
death was not the whole penalty referred to, or con- 
templated in that first threat to man; if, as the mass 
of divines have claimed, that threat embraced eter- 
nal death, then, in spite of the Bible teaching to the 
contrary, the mercy of God can reach a state of eter- 
nal death ; and the lowest of the lost in the realms of 
sorrow may still stretch out the hand of hope toward 
Heaven. 

And what is more, the Bible is full of the idea 
that Christ died in Adam's place or stead. Now, 
surely, he did not die in Adam's stead physically, for 
Adam died for himself in that respect, as we have 
said. And if evidently he could not die the eternal 
death for Adam and yet did die the death which had 
been incurred by the transgression of the law, then all 
the penalty originally threatened Adam was spi ritual 
death, and that fell upon Adam in the hour of his sin. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 201 

The next step is to ascertain just what that " dead " 
state of Adam was, and also how much it was 
changed by the grace bestowed in and through the 
intervention and the promise of Christ, or bj the pro- 
visions of redemption. Not how much it was 
changed in prospect, however, but how much it was 
changed in fact. The general idea among theolo- 
gians seems to be that Adam's dead state, immedi- 
ately after his sin and before the bestowment of grace, 
was not so very much different from that of Adam 
after he was endowed with the power to approach his 
Creator through trust in the promised Christ. But 
the difference must have been vast indeed; must have 
been, if not the difference between life and death, 
the difference between hope and despair, together with 
the difference between the smile and the frown of the 
Creator. In fact, a great mental weakness as well as 
a great moral darkness seems to have fallen upon the 
guilty pair, and unbelief, foolishness and dishonesty, 
to have rolled through their natures like a flood. 

Adam did not answer honestly, neither did Eve; 
they answered as though the blame was not so much 
theirs, as that of some other party; they equivocated 
sadly, for they must have known all the time that 
they were the real culprits; that they w^ere not only 
guilty but very guilty. If they did not, then the 
language and the dealings of the Creator to and to- 
ward them were severe, tyranical, and terrible, indeed. 

Now, could the simple withdrawment of the spirit 
from the sinning pair have produced such dishonesty 



202 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 



— such shame and short-sightedness in so brief a 
time? We can suppose, of course, that the tempter 
was not idle all those hours — that he may have inocu- 
lated them with corruption and hypocrisy, and in that 
way we may account for some of the above exhi- 
bitions of depravity in Adam and Eve. But, how is 
it about the same exhibitions in all the posterity, and 
that too, at an early period in their lives? We are 
aware that a few men have denied the fact of natural 
depravity; attributing the errors of youth to evil ex- 
ample or vile precept. But it cannot be accounted 
for by any such methods. The disease is too malig- 
nant and universal to be disposed of in such a manner. 
For, that children are born depraved is as certain as 
that they are born ; and no sophistry can conceal the 
fact nor logic disprove its reality; and this depravity in 
the children must be accounted for. Richard Watson 
says, in his Instiutes, vol. II, p. 79, that 

"This 'native corruption, 1 is by some devines called, with great 
aptness, ' a depravation arising from a depravation, ' and is cer- 
tainly much more consonant with the Scripture, than the opinion 
of the infusion of evil qualities into the nature of man by a positive 
cause, or direct tainting of the heart. * * The depravation, the per- 
version, the defect of our nature is to be traced to our birth, so that 
in our flesh is no good tiling, and they that are in the flesh cannot 
please God, but this state arises not from the infusion of evil into the 
nature of man by God, but from that separation of man from God, 
that extinction of spiritual life which was effected by sin, and the 
consequent and necessary conniption of man's moral nature." 

We have taken this long quotation purposely to get 
the one prominent idea it contains, namely that the 
" depravation, the perversion, the defect of our nature 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 203 

is to be traced to our birth," for this has been the 
usual method of disposing of this grand difficulty (as 
we have before stated), just as though what comes to 
us by our birth comes without God's knowledge, con- 
sent, or wish. Whereas our birth with its conditions 
and its minute circumstances must, in equity, have 
entered into the plan and formed a prominent part 
and parcel of the redeeming scheme. Hence, no sys- 
tem of production — no arrangment, or law of birth — ■ 
no mere law of any kind, whatever, can be answerable 
as the real cause of natural depravity in the offspring 
of Adam, any more than they can be the cause why 
nature drops such and such beauties into the hand, 
and such and such bounties into the lap of man. 

For they all have a common author — all now from 
a common source, and therefore must be viewed and 
explained with, and under the light of that fact. 
Hence, the cause of natural depravity as well as the 
cause of the blessings and the bounties which gladden 
our days must be found, if found at all, back of all 
laws, mental or physical, and above and beyond all 
created agencies, great and small. Therefore, we see 
that whatever our starting point may be in the line 
of natural depravity we must invariably fall back in 
our inquiries until we reach the " cause of causes " 
itself — must ever end our search, in this respect, 
where the landmarks are too old and obscured, to be 
easily seen, and where we usually loose all trace of 
our lines, in the mighty mist and mystery of God's 
wonderful throne, and in the greatness and the grand- 



204 THE PEOBLEM OF EVIL', 

eur of his incomprehensible plans and perfections. 
And to this work He invites the enquiring human 
mind — invites us ; if we come humbly, reverently — 
i. e., come with the wish to be taught, led and com- 
forted. 

And here, like Moses at the bush, which seemed to 
" burn, and yet was not consumed," we may stand 
amid the naming wonders which crowd upon our 
sight — amid the enchanting and matchless manifesta- 
tions of the wonderful God; and sketch a picture of 
His plan and of His power, as well as note the object 
and tenor of his work, with all the ability with which 
Heaven hath endowed us. This many of the fathers 
attempted to do in the days and in the ages which are 
fled; and their labors which were so sincere and ser- 
viceable have thus opened the way to our view, and 
marked a path for our feet. And, if we can push the 
inquiry a little further — can pry the gates ajar a lit- 
tle more, so that a stronger light may reach us than 
that which Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Watson, and 
many others enjoyed, we will be glad indeed — grate- 
ful indeed. 

Then with our shoes laid aside, and with a careful 
step, and like the High Priest who yearly entered the 
holy place, let us solemnly approach and reverently 
search the Ark; not for the golden mice which the 
Philistines made (the dazzling list of theories upon 
this subject), but for the renowned rod of Aaron 
which strangely blossomed and bore fruit by the touch 
of the Almighty finger — search for the hey to our 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 205 

vexed problem, in the will and in the goodness of 
God. 

All Christian men must, we think, agree in the 
opinion that God does what he does because he wills 
to do it, and that whatever he orders done, he chooses 
to have done, and also that whatever he wills to do 
or orders done, is right to be done, and right to be 
done just as, and jnst when and where he wills, or 
orders. 

Again, most Bible men will probably agree in the 
following conclusions: ist. That God knew the end 
from the beginning, and hence was knowing from 
eternity just what his creatures would do, and just 
what He would do. 2d. With all this knowledge He 
willed to make an agent like man; that is, willed to 
make man; and, jd. When He commanded Adam not 
to eat of a certain tree, He sincerely wished Adam not 
to eat of it, because it was better for Adam not to do 
so; 4th. When Adam fell, as Omniscience knew he 
would, God willed to redeem him; and in this work 
of redemption He willed that the terms and the cir- 
cumstances of this redemption should be just what 
they are; that is, He willed that we, as a part of 
Adam's posterity, should live, enjoy, suffer and die. 
And now, in respect to the living and enjoying, we 
are satisfied — glad indeed to live. But about the 
suffering and dying, we do not see the propriety of 
them so readily; and especially the propriety of the 
suffering. But if we reflect that temporary, physical 
or mental pain is not the worst thing that can happen 



206 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

to a creature — if we reflect that, in our present fallen 
condition, the pains we are called upon to suffer or 
are allowed to endure may be necessary to keep us 
from worse evils by far — to keep us from going en- 
tirely and rashly away from God; and if, also, the 
ills, the losses and the accidents so common to men 
evidently tend to make men measurably dependent 
upon each other — tend to unite them in interest and 
affection, as well as to show them their weakness and 
dependence upon God, we can see a grand result of 
these annoyances after all — can see a famous end 
which they answer in the present constitution of 
things. On page 176, while upon the subject of tem- 
poral death, the reader will remember, we came to 
the conclusion that the fear and dread of death and 
the darkness beyond, were necessary to keep us in the 
world — necessary to keep us from leaving our work — 
necessary to make us willing to stay in these troubled 
abodes of sin and sorrow. 

For, if the curtain which hangs between time and 
eternity were pulled aside so as to show to us the re- 
pose, glory and grandeur of the world of joy, and if 
there was no darkness or dread in death, then we can 
hardly think that we would be willing to tarry in 
such a world of toil and tears as this has proven it- 
self to be. But now, like a child which is induced 
to stay and quietly and patiently to pursue its work, 
while still looking for the parent to come and take 
it to its home over a dangerous and raging river, we 
in our fear and doubt — in our dread of death — con- 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 207 

sent, or choose to stay and work, and weep on. Again, 
as man is now constituted his tendency is to presume 
on the mercy of his Creator, and his inclination is to 
act as though the Creator would not long or largely 
punish one of His creatures. Therefore, marks of 
unexampled severity may not be useless — may be 
necessary to produce a fear of a hand that can even 
allow groans to be pressed from the innocent and the in- 
offensive. From all these considerations it seems that 
the root and the reason of physical evil and pain are 
in the moral condition of man; and that it is not the 
wish of Heaven to afflict or destroy, but to correct 
and to save. Then all that remains of our problem 
is, why the Creator did not so restore Adam and Eve, 
as that no effects of sin would be visible or remain in 
them or their posterity. And for us to say He abso- 
lutely could not do this, would be bold presumption, 
and to say He ought to have done it, while we are 
seeing that He did not do it, would be blind and blank 
impudence — would be taking the judgment seat 
against Heaven itself; would be arraigning the Eter- 
nal Throne. 

If we knew just the situation of Adam and Eve in 
the garden — if we could tell how much they knew of 
their Creator and of the workings and the penalties of 
law, together with their connections and relations in 
regard to other beings in the great realm of the great 
God, we should be better judges by far than we now 
can be of the case. For if the inhabitants of other 
globes and worlds were looking down on that garden 



208 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 



scene — looking down on Adam and Eve in their 
guilt — if millions of other beings in the grand uni- 
verse of the Creator were to be effected by this trans- 
action, and hence must be considered in relation to 
what was to be done with these rebels against heaven — 
these despisers of law; then the case is surely above 
our comprehension, and the Creator can be left to look 
after these interests of His empire without our dis- 
trusts and without our censure or anathemas; while 
we may go back to the fraction of our problem yet 
unsolved, and strive to turn the lights of reason and 
scripture upon it still more and more. And first, if 
the situation and surroundings of Adam after his sin 
were such that a full repair of the effects of his trans- 
gression would have been misleading — would have 
been a snare to other beings ; and if in the wisdom of 
God it was known to be better for all parties con- 
cerned, to continue the race in a repaired (though not 
in a fully repaired) condition, rather than to remove 
Adam and Eve from the earth (which surely must 
have been better, else the Creator would not have 
adopted such a course), then we may be thankful for 
existence, and rejoice that that existence is so loaded 
with blessing and favor, although somewhat checked 
with trial and toil. At least we may stop just here, 
and muse a moment upon the probable condition of 
Adam and Eve in their original state — may institute 
the inquiry whether our ideas in respect to that con- 
dition are not measurably false — whether, in fact, our 
greatest difficulty in the case of moral evil has not 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 209 

arisen from the hasty assumption that Adam, inno- 
cent and in Eden, was nearly the same as Adam in 
Heaven; which is certainly an unwarranted assump- 
tion, as well as contradicted by all that we know of 
the surroundings of our first parents at that hour, and 
by all we know of the early condition of angels. For, 
from all that we can learn, it seems that all the intelli- 
gent creatures in the great universe of God, are or 
have been in a state of trial — are or have been ex- 
posed to influences and evils which might be fully 
evaded, but otherwise must culminate in ruin and 
sorrow, ultimate and sad. This being so, the real and 
last question in our list seems to be, whether our con • 
dition, taken as a whole, is not as good, or nearly as 
good as that of Adam and Eve prior to their sin. 
That is, not better, and at least not much worse.* To 
make this idea a little more tangible and real, let us 
suppose a case. Here is a father who sends his son 
to the city on some important errand ; but scarcely is 
the boy started on his way before he is foolishly lured 
from the safe and direct road thither, and falls into 
mischief, whereby his eyesight is dimmed and his 
limbs enfeebled and benumbed ; and so much so, that he 
is utterly unable to make the journey alone; and there 
and thus the father finds him. But it is important — 
necessary that the son shall go to the city, and it is 
determined that he shall go. And for this purpose 
his limbs are bathed and warmed, and his eyes helped 
but not cured, by remedies. When he started before 

* See Axioms 24 and 25, and Fall and Rescue, p. 23. 
14 



210 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL 



there were no "beasts of prey and no impediments in 
the appointed path — no harm, of any kind could have 
reached him there. But before his starting now, the 
father lets loose scores of wild beasts which are to in- 
fest and prowl along each rod of the road ; he also 
makes pitts along the path, as well as throws rocks, 
crags and whole trees into the way, which seems a 
strange procedure — seems unkind indeed, if not 
vicious and cruel; but mind, this time the son does 
not start nor go alone, for the father gently takes him 
by the hand and leads and protects his way, while he 
lifts him over the obstacles, and makes the dangers 
only so many occasions for the exhibition of his 
fatherly care, goodness and might. Thus the safety 
of the son is eminently secured, only so he does not 
tear away from his father — does not refuse and scorn 
his proffered protection and guidance. Hence, if it 
be true that to offset the increased ills, dangers and 
toils which have been thrown into our earthly pil- 
grimage, our Great Father condescends to lead and 
comfort us in our journey, as he otherwise could not 
and would not do; then what we lose in one direction 
we fully make up in another; and strange to say, we 
find the scales thus mercifully balanced in our case. 
The reader will readily see that in this way of reason- 
ing, the last mound of difficulty touching moral evil 
sinks into an inviting and pleasant plain, and the song 
of " peace and good will to men " resounds over it. 

And then, again, inasmuch as all suffering is, and 
is supposed to be, a consequence of sin, hence any 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 211 

suffering among adults warns men to shun sin and to 
do that which is just and good. And any suffering 
witnessed among the innocent is a double warning, 
signifying not only that suffering is a consequence of 
sin, but also that sin must be exceedingly sinful in 
the eyes of the holy God, when not its punishment; 
but its casual consequences fall with such weight 
upon the unoffending, but fall (happily for human 
reason) by or through the law common to the race, 
that whoever shares life must share the ills connected 
therewith and attendant thereon. And this suffering 
of the innocent is best accounted for by assuming one 
or both of two positions. First, that these persons 
suffer for the good and warning of others, and that 
for this pain and privation which they endure here, 
they shall be amply and gloriously rewarded in the 
great hereafter ; and, second, that they would not and 
could not have shared existence except by their con- 
nection with our fallen family; and hence, that it is 
infinitely preferable to have being, although for a 
while subject to pain and sorrow, in consequence of 
the moral condition of man, than not to exist at all. 
In other words, that it is an untold blessing to such 
persons to exist, even in the midst of contending ele- 
ments and the common ills and pains of life; while 
Heaven, with its grand and glorious realities is 
offered us on such easy terms, and is in happy wait- 
ing just in the near future. 

Again (although it may seem fanciful, or even ir- 
reverent), we wish to present a certain thought which 



212 

comes to us in this connection. The thought is this: 
The Scriptures represent the Creator as grieved at 
times with the sins and wanderings of his creatures — 
as yearning over his heritage and wishing that man 
would do certain acts and refrain from doing others — 
would come to Him, submit to him and be happy, both 
now and forevermore. Now, whatever these words, 
grieved, yearning and wishing, imply, when thus used 
in relation to our Creator, surely cannot be fully 
known to man; but unless the Scriptures intend to 
mislead us, they imply something unpleasant — some- 
thing opposed to the will of God — something that 
He would alter or prevent, if He could, without break- 
ing in upon the moral order — the great government 
of His realm. Yet of course, we cannot think (and 
much less say) that God is in grief or uneasiness, as 
a retribution for evil actions done by Himself, or by 
His agents, and yet whatever these representations of 
Scripture imply would seem to be consequences of 
sin in man. And now, if the consequences of man's 
waywardness reach the Creator of Adam, then surely 
there is nothing strange at all in the fact that they 
reach the posterity of Adam — reach innocent chil- 
dren, and reach the brute creation. Again, if be- 
fore there was any wayward creatures in the Crea- 
tor's dominion, there was no uneasiness in the mind 
of T)eity; and if in the creation of creatures capa- 
ble of happiness, free will was an absolute neces- 
sity; and if to the All-Seeing-Eye the wickedness 
of man was present as the result of abused free 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 213 

will — as a result of agency; and if, at the same time, 
the effect which sin was to bring upon the quiet or 
calm of the Creator, was also seen and fully meas- 
ured; and yet, if the Creator still saw it best and 
right — if He deliberately chose to create man while 
He well knew every possible result, it is easy to be- 
lieve that there is a greatness and an importance 
attached to human existence in the estimation of our 
wonderful Maker, such as cannot be weighed by the 
human mind, or comprehended by finite thought. 
And we readily observe, too, that the coming — the 
life and the death of the self -forgetting and the suf- 
fering Savior, are all upon this principle — all a decla- 
ration of this fact, as well as a tangible and an abiding 
testimonial of God's inexpressible wish for our wel- 
fare, or a testimonial of a love which Heaven itself 
could not hold. 

Then if God himself, so to speak, goes out into the 
night of sin — goes out " to seek and to save that 
which was lost," and goes, too, for man's sake, 
surely man need not complain if his path to the rest 
and home with the angels has an occasional thorn, or 
is covered with an occasional cloud. All this effort 
and sacrifice on the part of the Creator tells us too, 
tells us plainly, that the wound of sin in Adam's soul 
was not easily healed — was no trifle in either the 
eyes of God, or of the angels which circle his throne 
day and night rejoicing — tells us enough to satisfy 
reasonable beings, that as to us there is no neglect or 
forgetf ulness on the part of God — no want of at- 



214 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

tention or solicitude for our safety and salvation. 
Hence, we may mark it down as a thing settled for- 
ever, as a conclusion never to be questioned again, 
that in view of our relation to other beings and 
worlds, and in respect to the ultimate ends of law 
itself (which of course rest upon the moral character 
of God), the full recovery of Adam after his sin was 
inconsistent — was an impossibility. Also, that to 
fallen beings our present state is wisely and gra- 
ciously adapted. By a " full recovery," we mean 
such a recovery as would not only heal the wound of 
sin, but would so heal it as to leave no scar — no 
trace of its fearful foot-prints. And, if it is once 
settled that certain effects of the fall must cling to 
the race by an absolute necessity of the circumstances, 
the rest is easy, or follows as a matter of course. 
Medicine to a sick man is not administered as a thing 
of pleasure — is not given because the doctor is pre- 
judiced against the patient, nor as a penalty for any 
carelessness or exposure of health; but as a blessing — 
as a thing to be thankful for. And if the effects of 
sin in man require the checks of pain, loss and care in 
all their multiplied phases and forms, as well as and 
as additional to the abounding grace of God, and the 
leadings and lights of the Holy Spirit, to warn him 
of danger and drive him to God — that is, if these are 
all necessary to help him to keep his bark away from 
the whirlpool of pride and of self-will, and from 
dashing on the rocks of sin and eternal death; then 
pain, loss and care are God's good gifts — are bless- 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 215 

ings in disguise. Thus, what seemed dark and bar- 
ren mountains of dread and fear — seemed mammoth 
mountains of difficulty, have one after another leveled 
down before us, until the eye of faith sees order and 
beauty in the Divine plans and takes in so much of 
the wide range of God's gracious dealings to the race 
as to fill the heart with delighted wonder and love. 

In all the foregoing arguments and comparisons, 
we have, of course, and of necessity, allowed the sin 
of Adam to figure largely as a cause in making the 
earth what it is to man and beast. But while we are 
obliged to say that the sin of the garden was the 
prime or opening cause of discord and evil in the 
abodes of men, it is but proper to say, that the re- 
peated sins and crimes of the posterity have also 
called for additional ills and penalties which should 
be each referred to its own cause. For instance, it was 
the sin of the antediluvians, and not the sin of Adam, 
which occasioned the flood. And the flood, perhaps, 
deranged the surface of the earth more than all other 
causes put together, before and since that period. In 
fact, the indications seem to be that by some change 
in the poles or the axis of the earth, the seasons were 
then changed and the climates so altered that the life 
of man was thereby shortened; and probably, too, by 
that event, portions of the earth were made sterile, 
if not new gases formed, and new diseases engendered 
and perpetuated. In brief, the earth to-day and the 
earth of Enoch's day may be so different as not to ap- 
pear to be the same earth in its surface, climates, pro- 



216 

ductions, beauties and healthfulness. For, long life 
to rebellious and vile men makes desperate men, as 
the j only live to add sin to sin and to go on from 
crime to crime continually. Hence, by shortening 
the period of human life and multiplying diseases, 
the spread of sin and its enormity would be checked, 
so that the Lord need "not curse the ground any 
more" (by a flood) "for marts sake." Gen., 8: 2. 
And then the sins of nations have led to their over- 
throw and extinction as a people just as the sins oi 
kings and governors have wrenched the sceptres from 
their hands and given them to other men, people or 
nations. We notice, too, in glancing over the record 
of the centuries already past, that the tide of power 
has tended to keep the vale of virtue — has naturally 
fallen toward the God-fearing and upright; thus 
showing that the manifold sins of the ages have been 
noticed and visited by Heaven, as well as the sin of 
the garden. It is very convenient for vicious men 
to load Adam with blame for their crimes — to lay 
the guilt of their own personal actions back upon an- 
other party; but the Creator never makes such a 
mistake. Kotice what He said to Solomon, 1 Kings., 
11: 11: "Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou 
hast not kept my covenant and my statutes which 
I commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom 
from thee, and give it to thy servant." Here the 
guilt was placed where it belonged, not to the account 
of depravity nor to the wrong-doing of Adam, but to 
the sin of Solomon. And in nameless instances re- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 217 

corded in Scripture, there was war upon war and 
blood mingled with blood — was famine, pestilence, 
distress and tears in a thousand haggard forms be- 
cause of sin — because of vileness, idolatry and for- 
getf ulness of God among the people. Hence, although 
men are naturally inclined to do evil in consequence 
of the taint or corruption of their natures by the fall 
of Adam, still they are endowed with ability, through 
grace in Christ, to withstand this tendency — to con- 
trol unholy passions and do that which is good and 
right. And a neglect to do this constitutes them 
personal sinners, and draws upon them the penalties 
of the infringed law. It is upon this principle that 
God deals with men now, and upon this basis that He 
proposes to judge and reward them at last. They can 
do right if they wish and strive to do so — can obtain 
spiritual help by asking for it, and by the aid of Di- 
vine grace they may conquer sin and self. 

The reader will observe, however, that in conse- 
quence of the changes in the earth and air, and of the 
curses and calamities which have befallen mankind 
(because of the sins of nations and of individuals 
since the days of Adam and Eve), many innocent 
ones have been made to suffer greatly and strangely, 
and are thus suffering to-day. So that the complaint 
in this direction is not lessened by the fact that all 
the calamities of earth are not the result of the garden 
sin. 



218 THE PEOBLEM OF EVIL! 



CHAPTER XVI. 

MORAL AGENCY AND IMMORTALITY OF MAN. 

Why God placed Adam in the Condition of an Agent — The Cause 
not in Man but in God — "Whatever God did was Considerately 
and Wisely Done — The Testimony for the Present Life and the 
Testimony for a Future Life alike Positive — It would be Miracu- 
lous if there is no Future State — Men may have Light if they 
wish it — The Buddhist Decalogue. 

If we ask ourselves the question, whether God 
could have placed Adam in a better condition than 
that in which he did place him, we may be at a loss 
for a positive answer. But notwithstanding the diffi- 
culty in answering the question, yet we entertain the 
idea readily, if not intuitively, that the Creator was 
and is desirous that man should be happy — that He 
is friendly to our interests. And whether this idea is 
intuitive to man, or whether God (who is ever present 
to the human soul) whispers it to us continually, does 
not need to be discussed here. It is enough for our 
present purpose that we are assured that it is a God- 
given favor either in our moral constitution or by His 
direct and continuous communication, Again, al- 
though believing that we should at all times act with 
modesty and caution when we presume to decide what 
can be done, what ought to be done, and what might 
have been done, by the Infinite Creator in respect to 
man; and feeling also that with the little scraps of 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 219 

information which we now possess, in relation to these 
high and intricate questions, all positiveness and arro- 
gant assumptions are entirely out of place, still we 
may use what little reason we have in an honest and 
respectful endeavor to solve any and every problem 
pertaining to all moral subjects. Hence, we institute 
the following argument, which we believe to be based 
upon facts and principles underlying and upholding 
all consistent Christian faith, namely, " that there is 
but one God, and that He is infinitely wise, powerful 
and good, and the Creator of all things visible and in- 
visible.' ' And now since each of these, His wonder- 
ful, attributes are as above stated, infinite (that is 
unbounded by aught outside of the Divine mind), and 
also in infinite and happy harmony with each other, and 
hence must ever work in perfect and perpetual con- 
cord, and must have eternally so worked; therefore 
we reach and rely upon the following conclusions: 

I. When the Creator was about to call into exist- 
ence inhabitants for our little planet (or very long 
before that period), His infinite wisdom was seeing 
what would be the best character with which to en- 
dow the primeval pair, and the best condition in 
which to place them. 

II. His Infinite goodness must have urged or in- 
sisted that the best, or (if two or more conditions were 
equally good), one of the best, be given to the pair 
he was about to create. 

III. Infinite power (i. e., power untrameled, un- 
biased and unbounded by aught outside of Himself) 



220 



THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 



was abundantly able and ready to carry out any plan 
or purpose which His wisdom might have devised and 
his goodness prompted. Hence, unless we conclude 
that in the creation of man God acted in utter opposi- 
tion to the character which He has given of Himself, 
and a character too which we readily accord to Him ; 
that is, unless we conclude that He acted contrary to 
the promptings of His wisdom and to the demands 
and dictates of His justice and goodness, we are forced 
to the conclusion that there absolutely was no better 
position possible for man, as man, than that in which 
his Creator originally placed him. And as we can 
neither imagine nor believe that our Creator acted 
contrary to His nature and attributes in making man, 
therefore we are shut up to the belief that the condi- 
tion in which he was created was as good as any other 
possible condition, whatever, could be. And so it is 
with all the works of His hands, whether great or 
small, whether active or inert. For, this same 
manner of reasoning will apply to them and also to 
most, if not to all, the queries usually and naturally 
springing up in the human mind in relation to the 
doings of God; such as, whether it would not have 
been better — been more just and good in the Crea- 
tor, to have made angels instead of men to possess 
and people the earth? Also, whether it was wise and 
just to make beings, either angels or men, for this or 
any world, who might betray trust (in the circum- 
stances or claims of their condition), and thus fall into 
shame, suffering and sorrow? It will apply also to 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 221 

the creation, the variety and the arrangement of all 
the varied forms and masses of matter, as well as to 
the production and ordering, both as to time, place 
and manner, of any and all organized forms. In short, 
will apply to all grades, classes and kinds of created 
beings and things in all ages, eras and epochs of earth 
and Heaven, and thus and hence must include and 
apply to any and all circumstances which may be per- 
mitted to surround, afflict or effect any being or beings 
whether young or old, whether innocent or guilty, 
both in this and all worlds now and forevermore. 
And for this reason, and in this way, this argument 
puts a hush upon the lips of complaint everywhere, 
at once, and authoritively ; and says to the bold bab- 
blings of censure and childish criticism, be still and 
know your place and your privileges — know your 
obligations, your duties and your deserts, and follow 
faithfully the plain path which has been marked and 
paved for your feet. And in this way too, as the 
reader can readily see, a dike of security and safety is 
raised or rather disclosed, which should be an ample 
and perpetual insurance against the tides of anxious 
and corroding care, fear and foreboding — against all 
dreary dread, save the dread of sin and the wages of 
sin. 

And as to the origin or cause of free will, or 
agency, with which man is endowed, we may reason 
backward to God as its root or infinite source, in an- 
other way, viz.: If there cannot be two eternal 
things, then matter is not eternal; for something 



222 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

exists which has organized matter, it being certain 
that matter could not organize itself.* And this 
something — this organizing agent is at least wise 
and powerful, as the work He has done is witness. 
But if there can be two eternal things, namely, God 
and matter, and yet, if, as is generally claimed, there 
certainly cannot be two eternal intelligences, then 
there was a time when there was no thinking entity 
save the one eternal God; and consequently every 
other being — every other intelligent agent and exist- 
ence has originated in Him, And this being so, the 
origin of all power to do, or to refrain from doing, 
was with Him ; and the peculiar adaptations and pro- 
pensions of each and all individual agents must have 
come by his arrangement, and according to laws 
either in Him or made by Him. Hence, since man is 
surely an agent, it would seem that at the time of the 
creation of man, or before that time, there existed an 
obstinate reason why man, if created at all, must be 
created an agent, or a moral being; and also, that 
this reason must have originated in the nature and 
character of God — must have been in accordance to, 
and in harmony with, the will of God. And being 
thus the product of the will and the wisdom of God, 
human agency must eventuate in the greatest good to 
man, and in the greatest glory to God. 

Again, if we reflect a moment we are led to believe 
that the redemption of Adam was not a matter luck- 
ily or unluckily hit upon in the hour of Adam's sin 
* Axiom 12. 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 223 

and fall — was not a new idea in the Infinite mind. 



jnst after the garden crime was committed, but a 
matter settled upon in the far-off years — in the deep 
and distant past. We are led to believe, also, that 
the creation of man was not a project which the 
Creator chanced to find, or run upon in some ramb- 
ling of thought — nor a project which had any hid- 
den or unknown parts or corners. Hence, the lapse of 
Adam was no surprise to the Creator, and what He 
himself would do was not a matter to be considered 
and settled then and there, but a matter determined 
upon in the long, long before. And out of all this 
we get the conviction that what was done in respect 
to Adam's posterity, was not a vexed and forced 
choice between two evils, but the development of the 
same wonderful and merciful scheme. In other 
words, if God did endow Adam with a power or 
agency by which and through which any innocent 
being might be brought into circumstances where it 
would be needful for the Creator to choose between 
two evils, He endowed him, knowing just what the 
result would be. Hence, in this way, as before, we 
reach the conclusion that the creation of man will 
and must eventuate in joy and rejoicing to man as 
man (to the race taken as a whole), and to the great, 
yet declarative glory of God. Those who refuse the 
proffered grace and gifts of God, and hence at last 
reap the reward due their deeds, will form only the 
exceptions; precisely as the convicts and culprits of a 
state are the exceptions to the general liberty, respect- 



224 

ability and happiness of the members of that state. 
And if the punishment of high-handed crime against 
the authority of a nation is an honor to the ruler of 
that nation — is a praise in the eyes of justice and 
good government among men, so will the rewarding 
of the ungodly and the Christless, according to their 
work, be a praise and an honor to the Grand Ruler of 
rulers forever and ever. 

If, however, after all that can be known of God 
and of a future lot for man, doubts may arise in 
any mind, in respect to the immortality of the soul 
and the certainty of consciousness and rewards in a 
future state (which would not be uncommon or 
strange), yet, notwithstanding such doubts, no reflect- 
ive or careful mind will fail to see the apparent sim- 
plicity and honesty of the Bible. Nor can such a mind 
doubt the wonderf ulness of the Bible, as a book, or its 
vital relations to all earthly history. Neither can it 
doubt the religious tendency and dependence of the 
human heart, or the general experiences and beliefs 
of mankind, in respect to God and a future life, with- 
out admitting or assuming by such a doubt, what is far 
more miraculous and strange than the simple facts of 
Christianity themselves. In other words, it would be 
more wonderful by far, under the circumstances, for 
the Bible and Christianity, to be fictitious, than for 
them to be real — more miraculous by far for them 
to be false, than for them to be true; or, according to 
our previous quotation from the statements of the 
infidel Rosseau, in respect to Christ and Christianity, 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 225 

it is more inconcievable that a number of persons 
should agree to write such a history, than that one 
only should furnish the subject of it. And again 
he says: 

" The Jewish authors were incapable of the diction, and strangers to 
the morality contained in the Gospel, the marks of whose truth are 
so striking and inimitable that the inventor would be a more aston- 
ishing man than the hero. 11 

Hence, say what we will, deny what we will, of the 
miracles and facts of Christianity, yet they are upon 
our hands to account for and to dispose of — are an 
inheritance as inalienable, unavoidable and real as ex- 
istence itself. In other words, the Bible is here, as 
before stated, and its existence is to be accounted for; 
and if false, its falsity is to be explained and estab- 
lished; otherwise, its authority should be admitted, 
and its claims and commands acknowledged, respected 
and attended to fully and at once. 

For, if we may reject everything around us which 
is connected with mystery and miracles, then we may 
reject most things of which we have any knowledge. 
For mystery attaches itself to nearly all earthly things, 
and miracles, like mercies, are the companions of our 
days. But if we must believe in the present world, 
because we have such a fund of testimony in favor of 
its reality, then we must believe in an after- world — 
a world beyond time ; and believe, too, in the wonders 
so evidently connected with that eternal abode of the 
soul, for the same reasons. 

And to say nothing of what God will and does be- 
15 



226 THE PKOBLEM OF EVILJ 

stow of light and assurance (in respect to a future 
state) upon all men, and especially upon all who 
humbly ask for heavenly wisdom, the fact that this 
wonderful book — the Bible — is here, and is so 
linked to and interwoven with all history — the fact 
that its precepts, maxims and matchless sayings and 
suggestions are infinitely above all human ability 
to invent or express, appeals to the common sense of 
the race — assumes and declares at once and contin- 
ually that it (in its testimony and its truths) is from 
the skies — from God. And hence should be believed 
and relied upon implicitly and in every particular, 
and relied upon by all men now and ever. Moreover, 
if the child of a culprit, which is in the darkest and 
dampest cell of Ceylon's dungeon (because it will not 
come out — will not seek the sunlight), would but 
expose his ignorance, or his perfidy, in declaring that 
no sun lights our little globe, and no moon and stars 
gem the great arch of the evening, although expressly 
and daily assured to the contrary; or, if the gloomy 
inhabitant of some chilly cavern, who is now brood- 
ing over the gravelike stillness of his abode, would 
be unwise and self-tormenting, while he could easily 
go to the light — while a golden day and the beauti- 
ful flowers with the soft air and songs of the summer 
time were offered him — were waiting for him (if he 
will but forsake his dark den of grief and gloom), 
then is every human soul now in the dungeon of 
doubt, distrust and despair, unwise and self-destroy- 
ing, while heaven literally bends with mercy and re- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 227 

sounds with the gracious invitation to all, to " come 
to the light" — "come and find rest ." And hence, 
unless the responsibility of human agency can be 
shifted from the creature to the Creator — unless it 
can be proven that man is not free in his choices of 
thought and action, the blame of blank neglect, if not 
of utter contempt of Heaven, must attach and cleave 
to man in all the days and years of his waywardness. 
In the preceding pages we have assumed, if not 
proven, that God manifests himself to man — to all 
men, as the merciful, gracious and long-suffering 
one — as a personal, loving and divine Creator. This 
we believe to be true in every land, Christian and 
pagan ; and to have been true in all time since the 
promise to Adam and Eve, that " the seed of the 
woman should bruise the serpent's head " — true, too, 
and according to the Scripture declaration, that 
" Christ is the true light which lighteth every man 
which cometh into the world." The following stan- 
zas, by Alexander Pope, convey the same sentiment 
and endorse this thought: 

" Father of all I in ev'ry age. 
In ev'ry clime ador'd, 
By saint, by savage, and by sage, 
Jehovah, Jove, or Lord. 

" What conscience dictates to be done, 
Or warns me not to do, 
This teach me more than hell to shun, 
That more than heav'n pursue." 

Hence, if in any case, as in China, Siam, or else- 
where among Buddhists, or any other class of errorists, 



228 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

a personal Creator is ignored, it mnst be because of 
a faulty education, and a stubborn rejection of light, 
which have overcome and borne down, and away, the 
native and clear intuitions of the soul. Hence, the 
fact that Buddhists really have no Creator in their 
creed, is no proof that God does not early manifest 
Himself to every son and daughter of Adam — no 
proof that he does not speak plainly and directly to 
the human heart. And although it really seems 
strange that the errors of Buddhism should take such 
a fast hold of such multitudes of men in China and 
Japan — should be the only system of religion in 
Siam, where the annual maintenance of the priesthood 
is estimated at $25,000,000; yet, we know that Bud- 
dhism is not native to the human mind — that it is an 
exotic, and the result of patient and persistent teach- 
ing through all the earlier years. By the following 
quotation, we discover, too, that it is but the syren's 
song to the soul — is but a conglomerate of errors 
culled from the ancient creeds of error, and from the 
blackest systems of infidelity. The Rev. S. G. Mc- 
Farland writes: 

" Buddhism knows no Creator. It quiets the minds of its follow- 
ers by simply asserting that the world came into existence by some 
inherent power in itself, or by chance. It teaches that the souls of 
men are only our ancestors under a new form. All kinds of birds 
and beasts are supposed to be the abodes of the souls of departed 
relations, and the ivhite elephant, above all animals, is held in great 
veneration, because it is thought to be animated by the spirit of 
some king or hero." " I ask a person where he expects to go when 
he dies. The answer is, ' I cannot tell whether in the next state I 
will be born a white ant or an elephant/ They expect their spirit 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 229 

will pass into the body of some animal. For this reason the Siam- 
ese pretend to be very particular not to violate the first precept of 
their decalogue, which forbids taking animal life." 

He goes on to say : 

"Buddhism is a cold, heartless formality — a fearful, soul- de- 
stroying delusion. According to it, this world is a dark enigma, 
where all is chance and uncertainty; i. e., a dark cloud hangs over 
the present state of existence, and an infinitely darker shrouds the 
future." 

The following commandments compose the Bud- 
dhist decalogue: 

" 1. From the meanest insect up to man, thou shalt kill no animal 
whatever. 

" 2. Thou shalt not steal. 

" 3. Thou shalt not violate the wife of another, nor his concubine. 

" 4. Thou shalt speak no word that is false. 

" 5. Thou shalt not drink wine nor anything that may intoxicate. 

" 6. Thou shalt avoid all anger, hatred, and bitter language. 

" 7. Thou shalt not indulge in idle and vain talk. 

" 8. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods. 

" 9. Thou shalt not harbor envy nor pride, nor malice, nor revenge, 
nor the desire of thy neighbor's death or misfortune. 

w 10. Thou shalt not follow the doctrine of false gods." 

This is, indeed, a bundle of negatives, with nothing 
positive, whereby the soul may be brought into union 
and communion with God. In other words, it has no 
gospel in it for a wretched, hungry and weary soul — 
no Savior from sin and death, and no method of re- 
covery for the fallen, the perverse, and the perishing. 
It is wholly a system of merit, and as such cannot suit 
itself to the distressed and restless sinner's soul. 

"What Buddhists need, and need wonderfully, is the 
knowledge of the cross — the glad and gracious light 



230 THE PROBLEM OF EYLL; 

of a Christian experience — the applied merit — the 
sprinkling blood of " the ' Babe of Bethlehem.' " Yet 
it seems, indeed, that nothing but determined and 
self-imposed blindness could keep them where they 
are — could keep them from sincere prayer to a First 
Cause, which would naturally lead them to such a 
knowledge of the true God and of His will, as would 
largely emancipate them from those chains of error — 
to such a knowledge of God, too, as would elevate 
them to the plane of Heavenly hope and happiness, 
and cause them to sing: 

" Happy the man who finds the grace, 
The blessing of God's chosen race, 
The wisdom coming from above, 
The faith that sweetly works by love. 

" Happy, beyond description, he 
Who knows the Savior died for me! 
The gift unspeakable obtains, 
And heavenly understanding gains. 

"Wisdom divine! who tells the price 
Of wisdom's costly merchandise ? 
Wisdom to silver we prefer, 
And gold is dross compared to her." 

— C. Wesley. 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 231 



CHAPTER XYII 

I. The System of Development not a Key to the Problem 

of Pain — The Divine Presence a Key. 
II. Back Door to Christianity. 

III. The Unity and Omnipresence of God. 

IV. Conscience and Right, 

V. The Universal Father or the Existence of God. 
VI. The Moral Scales —Origin of Evil— Faith and Intuition. 

Section I. The System of Development not a 
Key to the Problem of Pain, etc. — In many, if not 
in most, of our popular sermons, lectures and public 
prints of the present day, we are plainly and often 
told that the great object of probation is the develop- 
ment of character. As though the present system of 
joy and suffering were, not only a demand of human 
agency, bnt a necessary discipline and corrective to 
the human soul, preparatory to a better and happier 
lot in the realms beyond time. But, if we say that 
the ills and the uneasy errand of earth are needful for 
a proper development of the human soul ; then, unless 
such agencies exist in the after state as here, those 
who die in early life will not be thus developed. And 
if such agencies exist beyond death to operate upon 
the innocent and yet undeveloped ones, we shall need 
to be especially informed when and where this mis- 
sion of these agencies will end; *. e., whether they may 
not be a needful auxiliary to the divine hand forever; 



232 THE PK0BLEM OF EVIL; 

which would be a cloud even darker than moral evil 
itself. True, if we no\v had no nerves to ache and 
no spiritual nature that might grieve and suffer — if 
there was no way in which injury and pain could 
reach us through our bodily organs, then these ideas 
of right and wrong (as to acts toward each other) 
might not be so easily gained. But the lack in this 
respect seems to be in the want of wisdom to discern 
what is right as well as in a natural indifference to the 
well being of those around us. Both of which seem to 
be born in us, seem to be native to the human soul, and 
hence come to us as a matter of sovereignty. Thus, 
reason as we will, and speculate as we may, still to mere 
reason a mystery in this particular must ever hang over 
the lot of mortals, and invest and cover the entire fu- 
ture of the soul. Yet, although the dealings and provi- 
dences of God toward men have been often criticised 
and censured by all classes of society, and by all 
grades of intellect, still, few, very few, have been, or 
now are, willing to openly and continuously blame 
their Creator for making the arrangements of the 
world what they are. Indeed, it seems that however 
dark the day may be, however trying the circum- 
stances attending us in our earthly lot, the idea that a 
better and brighter day will soon dawn, appears to 
press itself into view. In other words, man seems 
unwilling, or else unable, to believe that God can be 
unjust. And yet, if any king should treat his help- 
less subjects as the innocent and unsuspecting are 
often treated in the rough workings of natural laws 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 233 

in the physical world, a multitude of tongues would 
bitterly curse him, and a stunning clamor would be 
immediately raised. Hence, it is quite unaccountable 
that so much trial and pain is endured so quietly, un- 
less (as we have before stated) the belief that God 
speaks to the heart and plainly declares His loving 
care, His goodness and long suffering, to the race, is 
founded in fact — is an indisputable truth. And this 
opinion that God is near and speaking to every hu- 
man being daily, as they pass the journey of life, as 
we have seen, relieves much of the difficulty in recon- 
ciling the ways of God to man, in many important 
particulars, and especially in reconciling with infinite 
goodness, wisdom and power the existence of moral 
evil which, as we have seen, is the deepest and darkest 
problem yet presented to the human understanding — 
yet known to the mind of man. 

This opinion also relieves another difficulty which 
presents itself in the fact of varied education, capabil- 
ities and susceptibilities among men. For, if every 
man is embraced in the arms of a kind Creator, and 
is naturally shut in, comforted and counseled by the 
infinite mind, and that, daily and hourly as his years 
waste away; except where such comfort and counsel is 
rejected; then, whatever else is done to him, whatever 
else is neglected to be done for him, he need not go 
far astray, and has no good cause for any loud com- 
plaint. And besides, every man who would naturally 
fear that the world will go entirely aw^ay from God 
and the precepts of virtue and religion, may rest his 



234 
• 

fearful heart upon this fact — may know that which- 
ever way a mortal may run, whether in the path of 
virtue or in the road and race of sin, he cannot find a 
place where God will not be still around him, as a 
judge and accuser, if not as a guide and a friend. 
Hence, although error in divine things is sad and to 
be shunned — is error still; nevertheless, the errorist, 
after all his widest wanderings and grossest fallacies, 
is yet within the compass of the divine control, and, 
but for his own intended and open fault, must be 
within the enlightening and charming counsel cham- 
ber of the eternal "King of Kings." And although 
Moore says: 

" But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast 
To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last;" 

Still, error is not Fate, and hence may be shaken off 
or exchanged for the pearls of Truth, Faith and 
Love. 

Again, as though best in the present moral condi- 
tion of the race, the arrangements of nature and the 
providences and commands of God, seem to have been 
so related to each other and to man as to defy the ap- 
plication thereto of any minute and continuous rule. 
Thus the cold and the heat of the same place at the 
same season of different years may be and generally 
are quite different. The signs of rain or drought fail 
at times entirely, or are realized only in part. In 
short, an endless variety runs through all the occur- 
rences in the physical and mental world, and hence 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 235 

no two days, years or events are exactly alike in their 
results, if alike in the minute causes which produced 
them. In fact, neither the forest, garden or field are 
the same for a single year or even a month. In other 
words, the whole catalogue of human events seem to 
be related to each other just as a moving boat, the 
shore, the water and the inhabitants of the boat and 
the shore, are related to each other. 

It will not do to say they are not related, and it 
will not do to say that the relation is at all regular, or 
just the same for any long period of time. The rela- 
tion itself is relative — is a relation of variety or of 
changeable quantities. In like manner, nothing of 
earth is really and truly abiding, or is really change- 
less ; and therefore, nothing can be taken as an exact 
rule. Even this idea, that all is relative, may have its 
limit, as it is a result of experience, and experience 
among men is a variable quantity. Thus it seems 
that the Creator has cut us loose from all that is stable 
and changeless but Himself ; * and that the settled 
intention of God has been, and now is, to so place man 
and to so surround him, as to leave him no real and 
invariable guide but the Divine will, or God Himself; 
and to make even the manifestations of Himself so 
obscure or hidden, that the greatest liberty of choice 
and action are thereby given man. In other words, 
we seem to be thrown out from any fixed point, and 
yet so tied to the Creator, as not to be able to push 
off from Him or His care and embrace. Like a boat 
* Axiom 13. 



236 

in a gentle whirl of water, which is equally unable to 
get out of the uneasy circle or to make a quiet stand 
and remain at any particular point therein. 

Section II. The Back Door to Christianity. — To 
those who have never carefully considered the moral 
condition and surroundings of heathen minds, or of 
minds who have no knowledge of revelations, it may 
appear singular, if not miraculous, that so many lines 
of what would seem like Christian light, should be 
exhibited among them. Hence, with all our thought, 
light and experience in relation to man and morals, a 
back door to Christianity may seem fanciful — may 
even seem dreamy at first ; but if we reflect a moment, 
it may appear more real than fanciful after all. The 
reason for this is that no human mind is shut away 
from God — that every rational creature has, and from 
its very constitution and condition must have, a con- 
nection and communication with the Infinite one. 
And in this connection and communication rays of re- 
ligious light or jets of Christian truth must be commu- 
nicated to every responsible soul. The facts seem to be : 

ist. That every mind is made conscious of ill desert; 
i. e., feels an intuitive sense of blame or default in re- 
lation to law; 

2d. That in the conflicts of life, all men feel their 
dependence and helplessness ; 

jd. In this condemned, helpless and troubled con- 
dition, the human mind, at times, naturally or in- 
stinctively, turns to Heaven for help, or pours itself 
out in prayer; 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 237 

4th. Earnest and sincere prayer is never rejected or 
left unheeded by our Divine author. In other words, 
such prayer is often and so plainly answered as to 
give the soul an abiding sense or assurance of super- 
natural aid or help, and of Divine pardon and peace. 

And thus, from one step to another, or by one grade 
of experience to another, the soul may be led on to 
many of the great facts of Christianity, analogous to 
the experience of young animals, which, by their in- 
stincts, are led to seek their food and rest, as well as 
their safety from danger and harm, until they 
come to know the sources of protection within their 
reach — come to know their friends as well as their 
foes, and learn to shun the one and fly to the other, as 
circumstances may vary around them. 

And then again, it is probably true that God in 
dreams and visions, in some instances, and by his own 
and angel lips in others, has opened the windows of 
Heaven to many heathen hearts, and revealed himself 
and his will to them ; and given them an intimation, 
if not a clear idea, of the " Fall," and the redemption 
of the race. Thereby showing them why the feeling 
of ill desert is so common to the human mind, if not 
plainly saying that, out of Christ, 6i Our God is a 
consuming fire." 

In regard to the prayers of heathen men offered to 
dumb idols, the question as to an answer to those 
prayers, from God, may not appear a question which 
can be decided upon by men; although such a decis- 
ion may be greatly desired. Still, by studying the 



238 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

question carefully we see reasons why we should con- 
clude that God may often answer such petitions and 
answer them readily too. For, if some heathen men, 
at least, are not blaineable for somewhat of ignorance 
of God and His worship; and if they, needing help, 
shall sincerely ask for it according to the best of their 
ability and knowledge, why should not a kind Crea- 
tor send them help according to their desire and need, 
although they have not personally addressed him in 
their prayers — although they have prayed to the sun, 
the moon, or to some animal? 

To illustrate this idea, let us suppose a father or a 
mother, who might be out of the sight of their child 
(and yet in a situation themselves to see the move- 
ments of the child), should know that it was seeking 
needed food or drink from the dog or the cat; now, 
would they not be likely to supply that want at once, 
if within their power to do so, although the request 
was not made to them ? If they most certainly would, 
then why may not God answer the honest and earnest 
request of a poor heathen's heart addressed to a snake 
or a crocodile? Again, if He does often answer such 
prayers, and if it is natural and proper to venerate 
our benefactors, then the heathen have some reason 
to trust in and venerate whatever they think helps 
them, and this they suppose to be their idol; because 
the help asked has so often and so plainly been 
granted according to the petitions made the idol. 

True, this would seem like breaking down all the 
walls between the first commandment and the wildest 



OR, THEOEY AND THEOLOGY. 239 

contempt of all authority and obligation — would 
seem a license to worship what we please; but it is 
all in the seeming, as we discover when we take into 
account the culture, condition and intention of the 
worshippers — when we fully comprehend the situa- 
tion and relations of the parties concerned. In other 
words, we learn that it is not so much the acts as the 
intentions of men which weigh in the eternal scales; 
not so much in words as in wishes that the heart is 
exhibited to the divine eye; learn, and happily too, 
that God only requires of his creatures according to 
that which he has bestowed upon them, and that he 
has a ready hand to hold and help all who earnestly 
seek help in the struggles and toils of life. 

Section III. The Unity and Omnipresence of 
God. — In the interchange of those gifted and extra- 
ordinary letters which passed between Dr. Samuel 
Clark and Bishop Butler, in the year 1713, upon the 
Omnipresence and Unity of the Eternal Cause, the 
fact that human reason is weak and unable to com- 
prehend the Infinite Being, is clearly seen — is prom- 
inent indeed. This, we think, will readily appear by 
considering those letters. For, in them, Dr. Clark 
affirms that — 

' ' Whatever is absolutely necessary at all is absolutely necessary 
in every part of space and in every point of duration," hence " God 
is one and everywhere present." 

Now all this looks very well in print, or on paper, 
and sounds like good and conclusive reasoning when 
repeated in the ear; but when we scan it closely, 



240 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

and especially when we analyze the word " neces- 
sary," upon which the whole weight of the argu- 
ment must rest, we begin to suspect the fallacy of 
the reasoning and to withdraw our assent to the con- 
clusion. 

For, in regard to duration and space, it would seem 
that the uncreated being must either exist with space 
and time, or else before space and time. If he ex- 
isted before space and time, then he existed, but 
existed nowhere. But according to our conception of 
things and events, what exists nowhere, does not 
exist at all. In other words, we cannot conceive of 
an object or being existing out of space or time, and 
hence can have no idea of God so existing. Then, 
ist, If space and time are entities or things, and if 
the necessary being existed with space and time and 
not before them; and if they are not a part of God, 
then we have three eternal and necessary things; 
eternal space and time, and an Eternal Being occupy- 
ing space in time. And if we can have three eternal 
and necessary things or entities, why may we not 
have more than three? But, 2d, If the Creator could 
not exist without space and time, then sj)ace and time 
are necessary to his existence, and whatever is neces- 
sary to that which is self -existent and independent 
must be a part of this self -existent entity. Hence, 
by this line of reasoning it would seem that space 
and time are a part of God. And if a part of God, 
then to say that the Eternal Being must exist in 
every part of space, is simply saying He must exist 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY 241 

in himself, which is not saying much that is intelli- 
gible, at least. 

Now although this train of thought or style of rea- 
soning may not bring us much light respecting the 
relations of time and space to the Creator, it may 
more fully show us that finite reason cannot compre- 
hend the conditions of an Infinite Being, and much 
less solve the problem of his existence by mathemati- 
cal rules or formulas. In other words, it may show 
the utter blindness and weakness of human reason 
when called upon to grapple w T ith such high subjects 
and thoughts — may show that we are not able either 
to prove that God is alone in His eternity, or to show 
that He is everywhere present by his works. For, al- 
though motion or activity, in any particular place, may 
proclaim a moving or operating cause, as we are told, 
yet they will hardly declare the presence of God in 
every place where motion is manifest. For instance, a 
jeweler might make and arrange a clock, set it in mo- 
tion, and travel thousands of miles away and return 
again, while his clock would be constantly ticking on. 
Now, the question is, Would not the clock work on 
just as regularly while the constructor is scores of 
leagues away, as it would do if his eye were constantly 
glancing upon it? Surely it would, unless the clock 
is unnecessarily defective in some of its parts. 

Hence, we need only carry this idea along with us, 

in our contemplation of the Creator's works, to have 

the solar system (or any other system) so made and 

arranged as to work on, although the mighty being 

16 



242 

who made it were occasionally absent therefrom, in 
some other part of his dominions. 

In fact, does not the idea that God must be con- 
tinually present with each part of his work in order 
to keep all the wheels of nature moving, involve the 
notion that the Creator is the toiling servant of his 
contrivances, rather than their superintendent ? And 
the notion, too, that his work is defective and poor 
rather than an exhibition of power and skill ? 

Our little minds are easily reconciled to the fact, 
that a manufacturer may sit at a respectful distance 
from a thousand wheels which he has made to work 
for him, while he feels the assurance that each will 
turn in its time and manner — that each will faith- 
fully perform its part in doing well the appointed 
task. And in case a band works off, how soon is it 
seen? how soon replaced? And then, his educated 
ear hears the least friction, and fixes on its locality, 
while the turn of his hand adjusts the difficulty. 

Now if all this can be done where defect and ignor- 
ance are allowed to exercise so much monopoly as 
they do over men, what effort is there in thinking 
that God, the master artist, could so execute his work 
in the great bodies of the universe as to admit or 
compel them to move on at his bidding; and to move 
too (so far as matter is concerned) without the least 
friction, deviation or delay? 

Finally, in relation to the word necessary, as ap- 
plied to the First Cause, by Dr. Clark, we may say 
briefly that it seems exceedingly difficult to realize 






OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 243 

the absolute necessity of anything which exists. 
For, surely the necessity of existence for any one 
thing, cannot originate in the thing itself, and 
much less can it arise from that which is dependent 
upon it. 

True, a Creator is necessary to man, in the sense 
that man could not have existed without a Creator. 
But, as there can be no absolute necessity for the ex- 
istence of man, except that this necessity may have 
existed in the Creator, hence the question as to the 
necessity of man's existence, must turn upon the 
proof for, or against, the presence of such a necessity 
(for the existence of man) in the Creator. And if 
that which is Infinite must be unchangeable ; and if 
such a necessity did at any time exist in the Creator, 
then it always so existed, and only waited time to 
develop. But if it always so existed (i. e^ is eternal), 
it would seem that it did not exist by any necessity, 
unless the Creator exists by necessity. And if the 
Eternal Being necessarily exists, then this necessity 
of man's existence is dependent upon the prior neces- 
sity of the Creator's existence. Or, one eternal ne- 
cessity is dependent upon another eternal necessity; 
which seems absurd, as well as impossible; and con- 
firms the conclusion before reached, viz., that this 
problem is above the reach of human thought and too 
large for human reason — that it does not belong to 
the philosophy, or the mathematics of earth, for the 
reason that it contains so few known, and so many 
unknown, quantities, and reaches so far above and 



244 

beyond the limits of any and every finite measure and 
capability. 

Section TV. Conscience and Bight. — We are 
told by one of our best lights or leaders in science 
that " conscience is an action of the reason which dis- 
covers the right, and this is the ground or centre of 
our entire moral nature." And another gentleman, 
of great and deserved popularity, tells us that " the 
idea of right is intuitive." 

ISTow, just what is meant by this word "right" as 
here used by these learned gentlemen, does not clearly 
appear in anything connected with these their state- 
ments. And, besides, it does not seem, upon close ex- 
amination, that either reason or instinct can at all 
times discover what is right " per se; " that is, what 
is absolutely right. We undoubtedly know by intui- 
tion, or (what is more probable) by the spirit of God, 
' k a manifestation of which is given to every man," 
that there is a distinction in the moral character of 
actions, and know, also, what is right for us to do as 
well as what is wrong for us to do. The right and 
the wrong in the case, however, as in every other case, 
depends upon the education received, or the expe- 
rience gained. 

But in this way no universal rule of life is found 
in the dictations of instinct or intuition — no general 
criterion of right and wrong, nor any well defined 
dividing line between them. For what is right for 
one man to do may be wrong for another to do, from 
the fact of different education. Right, then, with 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 245 

these men, would not be the same thing — would be 
a variable quantity; that is, one thing with one man 
and quite a different thing with another. Like the 
raiubow seen by two men standing at a distance from 
each other; each sees a rainbow, but not exactly the 
same rainbow. Hence, right as to each man must 
mean what the judgment of each decides is right, 
whatever that decision may be. And as this decision 
must vary with the minds deciding, we shall have a 
multitude of rig fits , touching the same thing, in a 
crowd of men; but no established and universal line 
of action — no unvarying and general rule of right. In 
other words, if, evidently, it is the decision of the 
reason that makes it right for us to do certain acts or 
to refrain from doing other acts, then it is the reason 
that discovers the right, rather than conscience. But 
we are told just here that " God's will is the rule of 
right; " which we not only readily admit, but claim 
to be true. And then the question is> whether God 
wishes us to follow the dictates of our best judgment. 
If it is not his will that we do what our judgment 
decides is right to be done (after admitting and using 
all the light within our reach), then how shall we 
know his will concerning us? Rather, what definite 
rule of life have we besides ? And, if we have no other 
guide at all in this particular, then it would seem 
that it must be God's will — his plain and constant 
command to each soul that it shall follow the dictates 
of the judgment in each and every case. But as the 
judgments of different men will be different indeed, 



246 THE PKOBLEM OF EVIL*, 

therefore, no universal and established rule of action 
is possible, even when the will of God is taken as that 
rule. In other words, God's will, as to the actions of 
men, varies with the men, places and circumstances; 
and hence, is a sliding scale, or variable quantity, just 
the same as the human judgment is variable. 

Still we cannot conclude that there is no absolute 
rule of right which lies back of and beyond all human 
judgments and duties — a real standard of action 
which originates in and conforms to the nature and 
attributes of God. This standard, however, is not 
discoverable by the " action of human reason" And 
hence, no general and uniform rule of right is discov- 
erable by the action of reason. 

Yet, the reader will notice that the writer, from 
whom we have quoted, defines conscience to be this 
" action of reason which discovers the right," and also 
that " this " (action of reason) " is the ground, or cen- 
tre of our entire moral nature." Thus, strangely con- 
founding human reason or judgment with conscience. 
Whereas, conscience seems evidently to be that which 
urges us to do what our reason or judgment decides 
right to be done; or, condemns us for doing what our 
reason or judgment decides ought not to be done. 
Hence, conscience can hardly be an action of reason ; 
but something distinct therefrom — something supe- 
rior thereto, and having authority in and of itself — 
something altogether above and distinct from the 
human mind. 

For, in our experience, we notice that conscience 



OTC, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 247 

does not fluctuate with the variations of knowledge, 
as human reason in the same mind must do, but is 
uniform and stable indeed. For instance, an act 
which was wrong yesterday, is wrong to-day under 
the same circumstances, and must continue wrong, 
although the action, itself, may afterward be found to 
have eventuated in the rescue of a friend from immi- 
nent danger or death. That is, if the intention of the 
actor was to go counter to what the reason had decided 
to be right, the act is invariably condemned, whatever 
the result of the action is found to be in any after 
time. And the contrary is just as true. That is, if 
the intention has been right, conscience approves the 
acts done under that intention, however disastrous the 
results may have proven. 

Section Y. The Existence of God. — The central 
and leading idea of all theology, as well as of all re- 
ligion, rests upon the belief that there is a Creator, or 
has reference to some intelligent and active agency 
which is operating around and within us ; i. e., refer- 
ence to the primeval and efficient cause of the contriv- 
ances of creation. And the reason for this seems to 
arise from the nature and the surroundings of the hu- 
man mind — seems to be an out-growth of the consti- 
tution of things, material, mental and moral. For, fly 
which ever way we will to avoid the necessity of a 
God — to escape the conclusion that every effect must 
have a cause; still, while reason is not perverted, we 
gain nothing by the flight — still the same necessity 
meets and confronts us everywhere — meets and con- 



248 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL J 

fronts us at every shifting turn we make; speaking 
from the innermost of the soul — whispering to us in 
the air we breathe, and beckoning to us from the 
ground on which we tread. Hence, it seems that we 
can just as well fly from self — just as soon unmake 
our natures, as to drive the human mind from this 
idea — this conception. Thus we perceive that the 
root of religion is found in the constitution and make- 
up of man — is imbedded in the very core and fiber 
of the human soul, and can never be eradicated — 
never entirely silenced. Steeped in sin, contaminated 
by crime, and chilled by the cold blasts of unbelief; 
yet, at intervals, it will make itself heard — will utter 
its solemn warnings to the soul. Hence, and thus in 
itself, without going abroad — without studying the 
map of creation minutely, or even glancing at it for 
this purpose, the mind of man, as by intuition, finds 
the Infinite — finds its Creator; and may joy and re- 
joice in the sweet smile of his face. And whether 
this was the manner in which the first inhabitants of 
earth became settled in their views as to God, or 
whether the Creator did not personally and plainly 
instruct them, as to himself, may never be known to 
us here ; but, one thing is certainly plain, that an at- 
tempt to prove the existence of God does not seem to 
have been among the primitive acts of men — is not 
found in the earlier records of the race. 

The origin of man and of his earthly surroundings 
are stated at once — formally and minutely stated; 
and his moral capabilities and liabilities drawn out 



OR, THEORY AXD THEOLOGY'. 249 

like a map and commented upon; but the proofs for 
a Divine being — the arguments for an Infinite one 
(except by inference) were not the subject of remark — 
were not so much as mentioned or hinted at for many 
centuries. This is surely a remarkable fact — a very 
noticeable feature in the history of the earth and of 
its early inhabitants ; and the indications of it are that 
God was especially manifest to the minds of men in 
those days; that at once, at a glance, the human soul 
recognized God as its succor and support, if not as its 
origin or author. And as an infant pressing its cheek 
against the warm bosom of its mother has no occasion 
to question the existence of the arms which enfold it — 
no inducement to go into a formal proof that there is 
such a being as mother, so man, held and sensibly 
pressed by the Divine embrace, had no occasion to go 
out in search of proof for His existence. And the 
same, or nearly the same, may be said in respect to the 
idea and the knowledge of a future state for the soul. 
For it seems that the idea and the fact of immortality 
is not, of necessity, first brought to the human mind 
by books or oral teaching; but that God may univers- 
ally and invariably communicate to every rational and 
accountable soul the idea and the assurance that it 
shall not die with the body — that it shall live to reap 
an eternal reward for the deeds done here — the deeds 
done in time. And this will account for what may 
otherwise seem wonderful or marvelous in the Old 
Testament history, and especially in the first books of 
that record. That is, that so little is said as to the fu- 



250 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

ture of the soul — as to a life after death. It seems to 
have been taken for granted — taken as a known and 
commonly received fact, or a thing not to be either 
doubted or proven — that death is not the end of hu- 
man beings. Hence, Moses very quietly and briefly 
says, " Enoch was not, for God took him." Just as 
though, too, the body was a natural accompaniment 
of the soul in the future state. For if temporal death 
is the separation of the soul from the body, and if 
Enoch was not thus to die, then as a natural conse- 
quence his body must have gone where his spirit 
went — gone to the unseen realms. 

Now, a man may be rational and attempt to prove 
to himself that he is awake, or that his eyes are not 
deceiving him; but never while rational will he 
attempt to prove that he sees the objects which he is 
sure are plainly presented to his sight. For intui- 
tively the human mind believes the senses — intui- 
tively it trusts the testimony concerning the physical 
world, which comes to it through the avenues of touch, 
sight and hearing. And in like manner (i. 0., intui- 
tively) it seems to gather information as to spiritual 
things, and to believe in them and in their reality and 
certainty with the same unyielding and constant con- 
fidence. And if God is thus around us — thus press- 
ing us on every side — if "He is not far from every 
one of us," as the scriptures declare, then we do not 
need to go to the right hand or to the left to find our 
Creator — do not need to institute a search in order 
that we " may come even to his seat to order our 



251 

cause before Him;" but may be sure that the first 
and most latent wishes of our innermost souls are at 
once and clearly before his sight — may speak, believ- 
ing most fully that he is hearing — may a feel after 
Him," with the assurance that He will be found by 
every one of us, "and will surely whisper" peace to 
the troubled spirits of those who seek him earnestly 
and sincerely. 

Section VI. ist. Moral /Scales/ 2d. Origin of 
Evil; 3d. Faith and Intuition compared; Rest 
for the Weary. — The grades of moral guilt may be 
better understood, perhaps, by the representation 
thereof in the following parallel lines, A., B., C. 
and D.: 

The line A. represents perfect man under a perfect law of 

works. 

The line B. represents imperfect man under a law of grace. 

The line C. represents wrecked man below law. 

The line D. represents ruined man hopelessly undone, 

Taking the line A. to represent Adam's original 
and perfect state in the garden; then, when he trans- 
gressed, he fell to C, which represents a moral condi- 
tion yet within the Divine reach ; but below law, or the 
condition of " total depravity." Through the atone- 
ment he was raised to the line B., which represents 
our present probation, being a mixtare of depravity 
and grace, and not total depravity. If Adam finally 
failed before this law of grace, he did not stop, as be- 
fore, at C, or within the Divine reach; but dropped 
to the line D., which represents a ruined or hopeless 



252 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL ; 

condition; i. e., eternal death. Hence, as stated (page 
169), there cannot again exist such a state of moral 
death among men as that in which Adam found him- 
self immediately after the fall and prior to the pro- 
vision or bestowment of grace through the promised 
death of Christ. 



THE OKIGIN OF EYIL. 

On page 27, as the reader may remember, we pro- 
posed to divide the " Problem of Evil " into two parts. 
The ^7^ part, or that in relation to the disorders and 
sorrows of earth, we have been considering in the 
foregoing chapters; the second part, or that relating 
to the origin of sin and suffering in the universe of 
God, still remains to be considered and disposed of — 
still remains to be solved. And we propose to do this 
in few words. For frightful and mysterious as this 
part of the problem has appeared to many minds, yet 
to us it does not seem to merit much time or atten- 
tion — does not seem to demand any great or special 
space in this work or in any work on this subject. 
And the reason why it does not is, that our main diffi- 
culties in relation to moral evil pertain especially, if 
not entirely to earth, or are how to justify the ways 
of God to men, and not how to justify His ways to 
angels. Hence, on page 210, when we reached what 
seemed a reasonable solution of the problem of evil 
as relates to time, we came to a sort of resting place, 
just as though the proposed task were done — for so it 



OK, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 253 

seemed to be then, and so it seems now. True, if we 
knew that the doings of the Creator to, or concerning 
the angels were austere and unjust, as they have often 
seemed to be in relation to man; or if His ways to an- 
gels had the least appearance of injustice, oppression 
or neglect, then we should have a vast interest in can- 
vassing His whole conduct toward them — should want 
ample space and time to look every fact in the face 
which might appertain to the case; because the char- 
acter of the Creator would be thus involved; and in 
His character we are deeply interested, as the reader 
is already aware. But as we notice nothing wrong in 
these respects — as we know of no act of God to or to- 
ward any of those higher orders of being, in which we 
can find either injustice, oppression or neglect, we need 
not waste time in prying into the details of the events 
connected with those orders of being; and especially 
inasmuch as those events belong so exclusively to the 
affairs of God and angels. Thus, what pertains to our 
duty and interests is properly our concern, but those 
things which lie so far above and beyond us, so entire- 
ly out of our domain, are simply matters of curiosity. 
True, in a certain sense we seem to be interested in 
the existence of evil, in the tempter of Adam and 
Eve, because the Tempter seems to have induced Eve 
to eat the interdicted fruit. But until it is proven that 
Adam and Eve would not have gone estray, but for 
the Tempter, and until it is also proven that we, the 
offspring of Adam have been greatly the losers in 
the transactions of the Fall, the ways of God to- 



254 



ward us in this respect will need no particular expla- 
nation or justification. (See Axiom, 25.) And yet the 
question why the Creator placed the primeval pair in 
a position where evil angels might influence them, is 
a question worthy of any respectful answer which we, 
as mortals, can find or suggest. But in glancing at 
this question we readily see two other questions lying 
just behind it. The first is this, Was the test or trial 
of Adam and Eve too severe ; or could they not have 
easily retained their high and happy position? And 
the second is, Why was Adam thus made a moral 
agent? or in other words, why was he not so consti- 
tuted that he could not fall? 

To the first we answer, If that test was not too se- 
vere considering their knowledge and strength, then 
they were the only parties in fault, and the penalty 
which reached them was proper and eminently just; 
and if that test was too severe, then the Creator is con- 
victed of injustice — is adjudged guilty of a flagrant 
wrong done Adam and Eve. But the scriptures fully 
and flatly refute this idea, fully and fairly deny that 
any injustice was done Adam in any way, hence, the 
conclusion must be that the test was not too severe — 
that Adam and Eve could have easily maintained their 
position of purity and of happiness. 

And to the second question, we answer, If Adam 
could not have been man unless he was a moral agent, 
and if he could not exist except as man, then to ask 
why he was made a moral agent is equivalent to ask- 
ing why he was made at all; which puts the question 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 255 

a long way above human reach; unless we climb to it 
by way of the Divine Attributes, Infinite Wisdom, 
Infinite Goodness and Infinite Power (see pages 219 
and 220); and we may reach a happy and clear con- 
clusion as to the condition and relations of angels by 
the same method — through the same argument. 

Again, if the advice given Adam and Eve in rela- 
tion to the forbidden tree was enough more explicit, 
(i. e., enough more plain than it would have been if 
no tempter could approach them), to offset the in- 
creased exposure to fall included in the temptation, 
then the doleful complaint often made for allowing 
the Tempter the privilege of the garden is entirely 
groundless — is childish and futile. Hence, until it 
is proven that the strength and warning of the first 
pair were not in proportion to their exposure or the 
peril consequent upon their condition, all repinings 
in this directions are whimiscal in the extreme — are 
out of place and should be hushed up. 

But if we throw our thought back to the period 
when all was purity in the entire realm of being, and 
if we then start the query, " How could a pure and 
innocent creature entertain an evil thought and thus 
open up the way to an evil act, when as yet there were 
no agents existing save God and good andgels?" the 
answer seems to be that the very idea of moral agency 
includes the ability to think evil as well as good, and 
to do evil as well as good — includes the ability to 
start an evil thought and to follow it to a sad conclu- 
sion. Or to put the idea into another form, and 



2oQ the problem of evil; 

reasoning from the seeming fact that every intelligent 
creature must be under some law of obedience to the 
Creator (and following the formula of axiom 20), we 
see that there could be no hindrance to any created 
being (at least in the earlier period of its existence), 
from straying from heaven — from going out of the 
good path of purity and peace if they chose or pleased 
to do so ; although not naturally inclined to go astray. 

But suppose there were dark spots in the acts of the 
Creator to or toward angels — acts which we could not 
explain, still inasmuch as without the knowledge of 
the fall of man, the doings of God toward our race 
would seem unkind and wrong, and as with this fact 
fairly laid before us all such appearances vanish at 
once, we in this way would have the best assurance 
that some existing fact unknown to us, in regard to the 
angels, would, when brought to view, fully explain the 
seeming wrong under consideration. See Axiom 30. 

We are sometimes asked whether God could not 
have made evil. But, if by evil, sin or sinners are 
meant, or if suffering is meant (except as the result of 
sin), then we answer, no. For if to be evil is evident- 
ly to be in conflict with the will of God, then God could 
not make an evil being, because He could not consist- 
ently will that His will might be opposed; neither could 
He make or constitute a being so that its natural tend- 
ency would be to develop into a vile or evil character 
without secretly wishing it so to develop, and hence 
could not make or constitute a being thus. But He 
could and did make beings with the ability to devel- 



OR, THEORY AND THEOLOGY. 257 

op into evil or good, as those beings might elect; but 
with a tendency in favor of good. And, as we have 
already stated, for us now to ask why He made them 
thus, is to ask why He made them agents, i. e., why 
He made them at all — a question already answered. 
(Pages 222 and 255.) Thus, although at the outset of 
this work our problem seemed so clothed with the 
mantle of mystery — although we were so much in- 
clined to adopt the couplet of Denham, wherein he says : 

" Search not to find what lies too deeply hid, 
Nor to know tilings whose knowledge is forbid. " 

But, still prying gently, yet perseveringly at the gates 
of truth, they slowly yielded to our efforts, and so far 
opened before us that we have seemed to gaze quite 
clearly and fully upon the moral plan of our little 
globe — seemed to obtain an explanatory glance into 
the grand mystery of morals, both among men and 
among angelic beings, as well as to read many of the 
deep councils of the Eternal Mind. Yet. of course, 
human thought, being so very limited and finite in its 
energy, can never fully fathom many of the great plans 
of the Creator in relation to men. Therefore any at- 
tempt to fully comprehend some of them, and 
especially the plan of human redemption — i. e., to 
tell why the death of Christ was so necessary in the 
divine purpose, or for the satisfaction of divine law — 
is a childish attempt indeed ; is an attempt to measure 
the infinite by the finite, or to comprehend what to 
man is incomprehensible. Hence this is a field of 
thought which does not promise a return for hu- 
17 



258 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

man culture, and may be properly left without special 
and present attentions by the human mind. 

We have faith, but not intuition, concerning it; 
that is, we have a belief respecting it, but no knowl- 
edge of it. Here, then, as usual, we see that faith is 
first, and takes the lead — is the skirmishing party, 
while intuition lags behind. And for a good reason, 
too, or for the reason that faith often makes even 
wing with imagination, and often rests upon error, 
whereas intuition, or knowledge, rests not upon fancy, 
but upon facts. Hence, it may be deemed reliable — 
deemed an abiding foundation for faith, yet is not 
faith itself, as we occasionally hear. 

Neither is it instinct. Instinct may de- 
ceive and mislead us ; but if we can fully rely upon 
ought that pertains to human knowledge, then we may 
rest fully and rest readily upon intuition. And in 
moral things, as we have seen, intuition is a great 
light and guide to the soul — is God's light, or the 
Divine voice within, reassuring, instructing and com- 
forting us. And this being so, we can readily join in 
the sentiment, and ought to be able to adopt the faith 
of the following lines, entitled 

WHY WEEPEST THOU? 

Why weepest thou, mortal — why gloomy and sad? 
Why thy hand on thy bosom despairingly laid? 
Hast thou thought that on thee thy Maker hath thrown 
More causes of sadness than others have known? 
Hast fanci'd that Fate in her surliest hour 
Hath gathered the clouds which over thee lower, 



OR, THEORY AJSD THEOLOGY. 259 

And mingled a cup dregged deeper with pain 

Than e'er a poor mortal was destin'd to drain? 

Hast thou rais'd toward heaven a murmuring breath, 

'Gainst the hand which holdeth the issues of death ? 

Pause, pause! e'er thou breathest to the circling air 

One word of repining — one wail of despair. 

Go, visit the mansion, and likewise the cot, 

And register the sighs of each in their lot — 

Go, count up the big tears which fall from that eye, 

Which laugheth so gay when observers are nigh; 

And leam, learn, as those drops of bitterness fall, 

How heavily sorrow may press upon all. 

Leam, leam, that the gayest — the merriest one 

Can outdo in weeping, as well as in fun — 

That tears fall as freely on vestments of gold, 

As on those which are threadbare, tatter 'd and old: 

And that pillows of down may witness a sigh, 

As deep as straw pallets where beggars may he. 

But dost thou yet marvel that some seem so gay, 

And that others weep sadly on life's weary way? 

One cause of this differetice a line will reveal, 

Some ivoes are apparent, and some v:e conceal; 

And the saddest of hearts may look out from an eye 

"Which laughs in its sparklings all tearless and dry. 

Yet think not that all men drink equally deep 

The cup of affliction which causeth to weep ; 

For, as faces all vary and forms disagree, 

So, sorrows chill shadings quite difTrent may be. 

Some tears are the results of vice and of sin, 

Wetting the wayward cheeks again and again, 

Telling in language which no soul need mistake, 

That God's wise commandments no mortal should break. 

Then, some tears are common to all of our race, 

Bedewing all shadings and fashions of face; 

Thus teaching each bosom in youth or in years, 

That the world is indeed a " valley of tears." 

Some minds are so textured, and then thoughts so twin'd, 
That sadness and doubt all then sentences bind; 



260 THE PROBLEM OF EVIL; 

And their stand-point of view so shadowed with fears, 
That their heart's gayest hopes are dripping" with tears. 
Others more buoyant and more hopefully formed, 
Are less by life's turmoils vexed and alarmed, 
And from a sunnier point see rainbows of peace 
Hanging over the path their feet must yet press — 
Or, with a holier hope than earth can bestow, 
(Calmly meeting the waves of time's changeful flow), 
From the summit of Faith they see sunbeams of bliss 
Glancing down from a world much better than this. 

Why weepest thou mortal — why gloomy and sad? 
Though earth hath its dark days, there's light overhead — 
By patience and hope — by faith and by prayer, 
Thou canst gain happy Heaven — no weeping is there. 



APPENDIX. 



In the preceding pages, the prominent idea, or the 
grand and leading thought has been to find a possible 
path, or to trace a line through the mysterious system 
of earthly things (physical, mental and moral) which 
would be consistent with goodness or kindness in the 
Creator, and consistent with the facts as relates to hu- 
man agency and human joys and sorrows; or, in few 
words, to reconcile the existence of moral evil in the 
world with the goodness of God. 

And in this careful search for a way through the 
thicket of contending and contradictory phenomena, 
in respect to moral evil (without as well as with a 
bible to light our feet), we did not deem it best to 
turn aside, then and there, to explain certain facts 
which lay along our path, and to advocate various 
moral principles which then presented themselves to 
our view; for the reason that it would tend to confuse 
the lines of thought and to divert us from the great 
purpose then in hand. We thought it better to pass 
on, and afterward pick up a few of those thoughts 
and facts, and take time to more fully explain and 
dispose of them in an appendix, as we now attempt 
to do. 

And, ist. As the reader may remember, one of the 



262 APPENDIX. 

most prominent theories of the foregoing pages is, that 
but for the promise of Christ there would have been 
an end of the race in Adam and Eve. And if this 
theory is correct, then those stanzas or hymns in our 
poetry are not correct, which give us the idea that a 
large number of our kind were here in the world and 
deeply sunken in sin and hopeless sorrow when the 
Kedeemer undertook our case — when he proposed to 
seek and to save that which was lost. For instance, 
the two following stanzas: 

" Plunged in a gulf of dark despair, 
We wretched sinners lay, 
Without one cheering beam of hope 
Or spark of glimmering day." 
" With pitying eyes the Prince of grace 
Beheld our helpless grief, 
He saw, and ! (amazing love), 
He ran to our relief." — Watts. 

In these lines, as the reader will readily see, the 
idea is prominent that men were here in multitude 
and in misery, when the Savior undertook for us — 
when He became our Savior. Whereas the pity, the 
running and the relief, were all the events of the 
Garden of Eden, and hence occurred when there were 
but two human beings on the globe, instead of there 
being a throng 1hat lay in hopeless darkness and 
death. Or, Adam and Eve stood alone before the 
wonderful God, to be helped or not helped. (See 
pages 164 and 165.) But this idea, conveyed in 
these stanzas, was not alone with Watts, nor ex 
pressed in poetry only; but has run through various 
systems of theology and modes of teaching, through 
a long term of years. The great Welsh preacher, 



APPENDIX. 263 

Christmas Evans, gives us a clear example of this 
style of teaching, when he represents the world as a 
grave yard, or a vast enclosure in which thousands 
are guilty, sick, suffering and dying, and no one to 
relieve them, for the reason that the enclosure has 
been so barred and bolted by Justice that Mercy 
cannot enter as she wishes to, and relieve the suffer- 
ing found therein. But at length a stranger promptly 
promises to shed his blood in due time for those guilty 
and suffering ones, if the gate may be now opened to 
Mercy. 

Another phase of this same idea crops out in the 
notion that men are by nature children of wrath — 
are by nature heirs of perdition, and under the dis- 
approbation of Heaven. But since the tender mer- 
cies of God are over all His works (Ps. 105:9), it 
cannot be true that any created beings are under His 
disapprobation, except by their own fault — their own 
sin. Eph. 2: 3, applies not to men as found in a nat- 
ural state; but to men who have willfully broken 
law — willingly and perversely gone aside from the 
right way, and made themselves "children of wrath;" 
and heirs of hell. Now it would seem that we must 
either be the children of God or else the children of 
the devil; that is, that we must be one or the other. 
Therefore, if we are not by nature children of God, 
and yet exist because Christ died, then we are the 
children of the devil, by or through the Savior's 
death, which no sane man (it would seem) can possi- 
bly believe for a single moment. 

Hence we are obliged to disagree with that excel- 
lent man Watts again, when he says: 



264 



APPENDIX. 



" How sad our state by nature is; 
Our sin, how deep its stains; 
And Satan binds our captive souls 
Fast in his slavish chains. 1 ' 

These lines would indicate a state of heart acquired 
only through wicked practices, and not the native or 
natural state of the human heart — would indicate a 
dismal condition of condemnation, brought about by 
willful transgression; whereas the native state of the 
heart before God is a justified state, i. e., not a pure 
state, nor a perfect state, but a justified one. And a 
justified state is, or should be, a cheerful, thankful 
and hopeful state — a state of divine care, favor and 
trust, and hence cannot be a " sad state." 

2d. We often hear it said that the people of the 
Old Testament times knew little or nothing of a 
future state of existence — that all the promises to 
them pertained to this life; i. e., did not reach be- 
yond this world, and were so understood by those who 
heard them. It is often affirmed, also, that the Old 
Testament does not teach the future existence of the 
soul — that it was reserved to the New Testament to 
divulge to the world the fact that a future reward 
awaits the righteous and the wicked ^see pages 249 
and 250). But those who say such things cannot, it 
would seem, have studied their Bible lesson well, or 
else are slow to believe all that the Old Testament in- 
culcates upon this important item of Christian faith — 
" slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have 
spoken " in respect to this subject, and spoken, also, 
as to Christ's suiferings, death and resurrection, 
coupled with his entrance into glory as our "elder 
brother," forerunner ', advocate, priest and king. 



APPENDIX. 265 

True, much is said of earthly good — much said of 
time and the gifts and comforts of time in the early 
Scripture. For, how could it be otherwise to a Jew, 
while the sacred record was the deed or abstract of 
his land, his civil law and his medical adviser, as well 
as his psalter and the guide of his soul? 

And then, in those days (when the accumulated 
knowledge of mankind, both as to this and the after 
world, was not so much a thing of record as a treasure 
of memory, and hence necessarily handed down by 
oral teaching from father to son), the frequent appear- 
ance of God to men, and the instructions so often 
communicated by heavenly messengers (by bands of 
celestial beings) would naturally obviate the necessity 
of continuous and direct teaching upon this particular 
item in their theology. Indeed, the continual em- 
bassy of angels from heaven to earth, and the fact that 
they might be expected — that they were liable and 
even likely to appear in any and every place, and at 
any and at all times; and the fact that they did so 
often come to men through all the earlier years and 
centuries of time (both to warn and censure or to 
council and comfort) would seem calculated to make 
and to maintain an open communication between 
earth and heaven — calculated to join angels and men 
together from the earliest times, and to acquaint them 
with each other, and also to so twine and link the 
facts and interests of the two worlds, that the thoughts 
of the one would naturally, if not necessarily, draw 
after them the thoughts of the other. Hence any 
formal act of recording the introduction of the one 
to the other would have been a strange act indeed, 



266 APPENDIX. 

and quite unlikely to happen. All, then, that should 
be expected — all that would seem proper in a brief 
history of events under this condition of things would 
be some side references or casual statements as to the 
facts of a future life, peering out here and there, or 
accidentally showing themselves, rather than being 
the subject of special consideration and communica- 
tion. And this is precisely what we find to be the 
case in the early Old Testament Scriptures. For in- 
stance, the translation of Enoch is not mentioned or 
commented upon as a matter of wonder at all, but 
stated as a matter of fact. And mentioned, too, just 
as though it was a thing of common understanding 
or knowledge that there was an after state to which 
we belonged, and to which Enoch had gone. And 
the fact that he went over instead of through the 
grave, seems the only reason why the event was al- 
lowed a place in this record made by Moses. The 
same or nearly the same may be said in relation to 
the translation of Elijah, so far as the knowledge of a 
future state is involved; but touching the persons 
connected therewith and cognizant thereof, the cases 
seem the reverse of each other. For in Enoch's case, 
a few only seem to have known that he had gone to 
dwell with the pure and the Divine ones; whereas, in 
Elijah's case, the test or the trial of the gods or the 
transactions of Mount Carmel had fixed the eyes of a 
nation upon him, and the sons of the prophets, both 
at Bethel and Jericho, seem to have learned, in some 
way, that Elijah's earthly work was done and that he 
was soon to be borne to the blest habitations of light; 
else they certainly would not have said to Elisha, 



APPENDIX. 267 

" knowest thou that the Lord will take away thy mas- 
ter from thy head to-day?" 2 Kings, 2:3. Again, 
the dream of Jacob,* the wish of Joseph as to his 
bones; f the whole system of burial and of embalm- 
ing; Saul's calling for dead Samuel, and Samuel's 
words to Saul;:); Ezekiel's warning to the watchman; || 
and several other similar transactions are instances 
also of this accidental reference to a state beyond 
death — to a home for the soul in the unseen country. 
But the words of Job are more direct and declaratory. 
Job, 19:25-27. Also those of David. Psalms, 16: 
9-11; 73:17-25, and 90:10. And especially the 
words of Solomon. Eccles., 12:7 and 14; and like- 
wise the words of the angel in Dan., 12:13. Yet, 
as the reader will notice, no attempt is made in any 
of these passages to prove a future life for man; but 
simply a declaration that man is bound for such a 
state, uttered as a matter of hope, or else as an in- 
ducement to a good and dutiful life in the present 
state of existence. 

But in all that we have here said in regard to the 
appearances of beings from the spirit land, as stated 
in the Bible, it should not be forgotten that the Bible 
does not pretend to give us a record, either of all the 
appearances of God and of angels to the Jews, or of 
all that was communicated to men at those times, and 
much less does it pretend to tell us how often God 
and angels appeared to and taught the Gentile thou- 
sands, both of men and women, scattered in the dark 
corners of the earth during the roll of those ages. 

*Gen., 28:12; f Gen., 50:25; Jl Sam'l, 28:11; BEzek., 3:18 and 
33; 9:16. 



268 APPENDIX. 

The indications, however, are, that those angelic visits 
were many, very many, and that the truths thus im- 
parted were important indeed, as well as often re- 
peated and explained. And that many in the Gen- 
tile world, in those years, knew much of the Hebrew 
God, and often desired His favor, and feared His 
frown, is a palpable fact in history. 

3d. On pages 173 to 176, when considering the 
entrance of death into the world, a brief reference is 
made to the subject of geology, as connected with the 
death of brutes, and the conclusion was reached that 
death was not in the world before sin ; and that if sin 
was here before Adam was here, or if Adam was here 
over 6,000 years ago, then we cannot tell anything of 
the time when Adam was placed here, nor when nor 
how death was introduced into the world. And we 
cannot explain these events, for the simple reason 
that we have no reliable history of those years except 
the Bible history, and that gives us no reason to be- 
lieve that man has been here over 6,000 years. Of 
course, there are various facts in geology which are not 
readily accounted for without more time than 6,000 
years since the period when death (as would seem) 
was introduced into the world. Hence the idea, that 
the days of creation spoken of in Gen. I, were long 
periods instead of days of 24 hours each, has become 
quite common. But this idea involves us in difficul- 
ties in two or three directions, so much greater than 
those found in the little facts of geology, that we are 
inclined to the belief that we do not yet understand 
geology, and that it is our interest either to defer any 
positive decision in relation to those days of crea- 



APPENDIX. 269 

tion, or else to adhere steadily and fully to the Bible 
idea in respect to them. The first difficulty in con- 
sidering those days periods is that in regard to tem- 
poral death, already referred to above. The second 
is found in the fact that for long ages the most care- 
ful readers of that account in Gen. understood the 
word day found in that account, to mean a period of 
24 hours. And now this fact must signify oue of 
two things; either 1st, that they were incompetent to 
judge correctly as to the tenor of the Bible teaching 
upon this subject; or, 2d, that the plain teaching in 
the Mosaic account is that the six days of creation 
were each a period of 24 hours. And inasmuch as it 
must be admitted that many of those readers were 
keen sighted and eminently competent men, hence 
the conclusion forces itself upon us that the Bible, 
taken in a common sense or natural and literal way, 
teaches the doctrine that the seven days were simply 
literal days. In fact, if we turn to the ten command- 
ments, which must be considered as careful truth as 
human language can inculcate or convey to the mind 
of man, we see that the manner in which the word 
day is used there touching the law of the Sabbath, 
and also the reference which is there made to the six 
days of creation, gives us to understand that those 
days were literal days. And but for the difficulties 
or notions of geology, it seems that not a man would 
have ever doubted their literalness a single moment 
while the Bible was his guide. 

Again, if without the Bible the arrangement and 
the government of the world are a mytery — area 
strange jumble of contending contradictions — and if 



270 APPENDIX. 

we must look to the Bible and rely upon it for an ex- 
planation of nature, or for a key to our earthly sur- 
roundings, and if we can rely upon its indications in 
these respects, then why may we not rely upon its 
indications in all other respects whatever, and hence 
rely upon it as to the days of creation? For it would 
seem, as before stated, that we have an equal reason 
for crediting the whole of the Bible record, that we 
have for believing a part thereof, and an equal reason 
for denying the truthfulness of the whole, as for de- 
nying the truthfulness of any considerable part of 
this wonderful book.* 

qbh. In our strictures upon the analogy of Dr. But- 
ler, on pages 57 to 64, of this work, the intention is 
not to deny the existence of natural religion, but to 
show the impossibility of arriving at any correct sys- 
tem of religious faith by the Bishop's proofs touching 
natural religion. And also to clear the wav and brin^ 
out the proof for a natural religion, which rests not 
upon God's works in nature; but upon His divine 
words spoken to every rational human soul; and so 
spoken too, as to time, place and manner as that each 
responsible agent in all the world, and through every 
era of time shall have all the light needful to duty 
and happiness here, and to their moral safety or eter- 
nal salvation hereafter. And as the reader will read- 
ily see, in this way all men are " without excuse " — 
all are instructed — all are warned — all proffered help. 
Hence, wherever the lot of any mortal may be cast, 
and however their natural or acquired abilities may 
vary as compared to other men, no one can be so over- 
* Pages 116,117. 



APPENDIX. 271 

looked, neglected or forgotten by human agents or by 
angels as to lack the light requisite to their finding 
the golden gate at length. 

Therefore, although much is done and should be 
done by created agencies in the work of human en- 
lightenment and salvation, and although these agen- 
cies are properly held responsible for the part com- 
mitted to them to do, yet were these all to falter and 
to fail — were they to leave their work entirely un- 
done, no soul could say, at last, " I had not the needed 
light, and needed help." ~No, never, never. For 
God has not left Himself without witness in this re- 
spect any more than in the grateful rains and the sil- 
ver dews which are so often, so liberally and so gently 
thrown upon the face of the thirsty earth. No, thank 
God, " a measure of the spirit is given to every man " 
— to Arab, Hottentot, Indian, black, white, young, 
old — to all. But although we know this, yet it often 
seems strange to us (at first thought) that heathen 
men so naturally and promptly set themselves to work 
to reconcile the disorders of nature with the goodness 
and the fatherly kindness of the Creator. But it only 
seems thus for the reason that we forget that as stated 
above as well as stated before in these pages, God is in 
and around them, a counselor, a light, and a law. 

This fact, however, is no positive promise that the 
day may not come to certain characters when this light 
maybe very much less — when through neglect and 
vicious habits, the moral ear may become entirely 
dead, and the soul thus cease to hear the sweet whis- 
pers of divine wisdom and love. But we think there 
are very few men living who have gone this far away 



272 APPENDIX. 

from God and heaven — few men who are not con- 
vinced of the truthfulness of Christianity. True, we 
occasionally hear a man boasting and apparently prid- 
ing himself that he is an infidel. But the utter un- 
naturalness and glaring inconsistency of such a moral 
position suggest the idea that they do not believe 
what they say, and bring to mind the answer of an 
orphan lad when an attempt was made to frighten 
him. It happened in this way: Two neighbors were 
chatting one evening, when one of them declared that 
James, the 10-year old boy residing with him, could 
not be frightened. Upon which the other laid a wager 
that he could frighten him if the boy might be sent 
to his dwelling on the following evening. The wager 
and the terms were assented to with one clearly and 
carefully expressed condition, i. e., that " the boy 
should not be touched or in any way injured." 

According to agreement the boy was sent the next 
evening, and as usual went cheerfully and readily to 
do the errand entrusted to him. 

The neighbor's residence was back some rods in the 
field, and was reached by a roadway through a large 
gate hanging between two strong posts with a heavy 
cap reaching from one post to the other. 

When the boy approached the gate lie heard a dis- 
mal and frightful groaning, and looking up saw a 
white object on the cap of the gate posts; but paying 
no attention to either the strange appearing object or 
the doleful sounds proceeding from it, he opened the 
gate and went on, did his errand, and returned through 
the gate, while the groaning increased. After he had 
closed the gate, however, he looked up and said, " Who 



APPENDIX. 273 

are you?" and in a hoarse and sepulchral voice was 
answered, " I'm the devil ; I'm the devil." "Whereupon, 
the boy, not at all disturbed, very quietly replied," Well, 
you 're a poor creature," and leisurely walked toward 
home. Xow it has ever seemed that this transaction, 
and the boast of infidelity we have mentioned, touch 
each other, or are similar in four particulars : 1st. The 
scheme of this would-be ghost was a blank failure, 
and so is the scheme of infidelity; for intuition refutes 
it at every shifting turn it takes. 2d. The w r ager was 
lost. And the infidel stakes Heaven, and must surely 
lose the stake. 3d. The assertion of the actor in this 
scene was a falsehood, and he knew it. So the infidel 
away down in his heart of hearts knows he is not 
what his words imply — knows that he does not fully 
believe his assertions of unbelief; at least, not until 
the Holy Spirit bids his poor soul a final and fatal 
farewell; and 4th, the infidel "is a poor creature" in 
the deepest sense of those words — in every important 
sense — in a terrible sense. 

But still further, as respects the connection of anal- 
ogy with natural religion, if it be true that a future 
state of existence cannot be proven by the light of na- 
ture, i. e., by the help of reason alone, then no key of 
analogy can unlock the tomb, or light the soul through 
the shadowy halls of death. And if the scriptures are 
appealed to in this respect, if they must be thus ac- 
knowledged and accepted as truth in order that we 
may have any external proof at all for a future life, 
and if, also, the scriptures are a full, clear and com- 
plete proof for a state of conscious being beyond death, 
and a proof, too, which no analogy can supplement or 
18 



274 



APPENDIX. 



strengthen in any important particular, or in any es- 
sential degree; and if, besides this, we find that, in 
regard to the duty which we owe to God, to ourselves 
and to men, the Bible is also a competent and complete 
guide, then, touching these items of duty and faith, 
analogy would seem to be of little worth, or not need- 
ful at all, at least no more so than candles are to aid 
the sun in keeping the darkness out of the way at 
"high noon," under a cloudless sky. (See page 41.) 

And moreover, it would seem that an infidelity 
which is proof against the Bible, the warnings of Prov- 
idence and the spirit of God, could never be touched 
by any analogy whatever, or by a combination of all 
the analogies under heaven. And that the man who 
is not drawn to the Bible for a solace in the sorrows 
of time will not be likely to be attracted by any light 
which analogy can shed, or by any hope or cheer it 
has to proffer. And yet analogy is not a useless art; 
is not a worthless and worn out style of reasoning, 
but comes to our aid where revelation pauses in its 
communications — where we have no plain "thus 
saith the Lord " to direct our way, or answer our que- 
ries. Hence is very important in its place and way. 

$ih. A few erratic or imaginative men in other 
days have seemed, and some such appear now to be 
intent upon making a God of law, or rather of mak- 
ing the laws in nature answer and act for them in the 
place of the Christian's God, who made and watches 
over these laws in nature as well as over nature her- 
self. And to the casual observer, the manner in 
which these men state their theory may give a sort of 
plausible look to the system, although it is a mere 



APPENDIX. 275 

fabric of fancy, i. e., a system of flaunting words, 
stretched out in a long contradictory yet showy line. 
Such are the theories of Mill, Herbert Spencer, Dar- 
win and Huxley. 

Hence, to thoughtful minds their genesis of crea- 
tion, or what thev give as the first feats of atoms in 
the would-be processes of matter in producing organ- 
ized life, is the wildest dreaming, entirely — seems 
like the words of a jeering monomaniac. Just as 
though matter could contrive and work better in at- 
oms of nebula drifting idly through space, than in 
the links of a watch chain or in the masses of iron, 
marble or granite composing the mountain ranges. 
Or, just as though atoms were a law unto themselves; 
just as though they were not inert and supremely 
helpless, the same as the rocks which make the falls 
of Niagara, or which for ages have been sleeping in 
the great pyramids of antiquity. In fact, Mr. Spen- 
cer and his like seem to have strangely overlooked 
the fact that matter is matter — that inertia and ac- 
tive, contriving energy are oppo sites everywhere, and 
under all possible circumstances whatever — seem to 
have imagined that law is an architect instead of be- 
ing what it is, a rule by which an architect proceeds 
in his work. 

If matter is inert, and if an atom of matter can be 
nothing more nor less than matter, then the question 
in respect to the ability of atoms to initiate or pro- 
duce organized life is a parallel to the question of how 
many icicles it will require to produce a lire in the 
grate. And as almost any child will laugh at the 
latter query, so any common man, with a level head, 



276 APPENDIX. 

will laugh at the former query. Both being absurd 
as well as ridiculous — both being a grand dream of 
folly. Not but that both atoms and icicles are 
firmly held in the arms of law — are under therein 
of restraint; that is not the question. The question 
is as to the ability of inert matter as such — any mere 
matter of itself, either to institute activity, or to pro- 
duce organized life. Why, the very helplessness of 
matter, and its servile obedience to law, tell plainly 
that it is a subject and not a master; a creature and 
not a creator, sure. And beside this, the steady and 
uniform energy so manifest in the control and govern- 
ment of matter, signifies a great and changeless power 
lying back of all law in matter; signifies a law maker 
and a law executer. (Axioms 11 and 13.) Of course, 
all christian writers see a God behind and operating 
through nature, and hence never bend the knee to 
law. And yet the term law is often used by them to 
personify an actor instead of its being the rule of that 
actor or his guide in his work. No careful reader of 
their writings, however, need mistake their intention, 
or will generally fail to understand the drift of their 
thought. Yet a few have seemed to misunderstand 
Paul when he says (Rom. 8: 3), " What the law could 
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh," etc.; 
or just as though the weakness was in the law itself 
and not in the subjects under it. But inasmuch as 
law never does anything; never can do anything, we 
conclude that the weakness mentioned in this text 
wae not in the law but in the subjects of that law — in 
men. And we conclude too, that the law mentioned 
here was a law given to man, and yet a law that man 



APPENDIX. 277 

could not keep at the time these words were penned by 
Paul. Xow, if at any time the Creator has given a 
law to man which he was not able to obey (and to obey 
readily, too,) then there was injustice in the require- 
ments of that law. But as the creator could never do 
such an act, the prompt conclusion is that such a law 
has never been given. Hence the law promulgated on 
Mount Sinai (or the ten commandments) could have 
been obeyed by the people to whom it was delivered. 
And they understood that it was given them for their 
careful attention and prompt obedience; understood 
that they could obey it and ought to obey it. And, 
what is more, if those men would not have been there 
to hear and to heed law but for the atonement of 
Christ promised; but for a law of grace made for 
them; but for the covenant of forgiveness and sal- 
vation through faith in Christ's blood (typified by 
the blood of slain beasts), then the deliverances of 
Sinai were a mixture of law and gospel, and, as such, 
might have been obeyed — should have been scrupu- 
lously obeyed. (See Luke, 10: 25-28.) 

And inasmuch as the law contemplated by Paul, in 
this text (Pom., 8: 3), as before stated, was given to 
man, and yet was a law which fallen man could not 
obey, it would seem that it must be the high law ori- 
ginally given to Adam — the law before which all 
men must fail, or in the eyes of which all are delin- 
quents. (See page 190.) 

6th. If God is really near and manifest to every 
human soul, according to the tenor of the preceding 
pages, it may seem, to the reader, at first thought, 
that the missionary work is of small importance, or 



278 APPENDIX. 

is nearly needless. But a little reflection will prob- 
ably correct this idea, and show at once that although 
God touches and enlightens every rational human be- 
ing, and so enlightens and instructs them that they 
need not go astray from the good way — the way of 
righteousness; still as no people can be found, who 
are deprived of the Bible, that are not also lacking 
many important items of Christian hope and com- 
fort, or who will not be greatly benefited and blessed 
by the revealments of revelation; hence the duty to 
send them the gospel is clear to reason, as well as the 
command of God. For although they know some- 
thing of God, duty and a future life, still they need 
the lamp of the gospel to cheer the shaded places in 
their pathway, and to make them more faithful, use- 
ful and happy. Hence we love the old missionary 
hymn — 

"From Greeland's icy mountains." 

Again, according to the tenor of this volume it 
would seem that in this drama of earth and time, the 
Saviour is a character so important and withal so vital 
that he could hardly be less than divine — could not 
possibly be simply a creature in the highest attributes 
of his nature. For to all of us, since Adam and Eve, 
He seems to be in effect if not in fact the cause of our 
existence — the author of our being and of our bless- 
ings (both temporal and spiritual), as well as the only 
anchor of onr hopes for time and for eternity. Thus, 
at least, holding the place of the Divine One to us in 
every fair sense, and in an eminent degree; or, as the 
Scriptures affirm, He is "Emanuel" — "God with 
ns." 



APPENDIX. 279 

It should be noticed, too, that in the scheme of re- 
demption, not only the sin of the garden was to be pro- 
vided for, but a way was to be opened whereby each 
and every one of Adam's posterity might come and 
find remission of sins (provided they might fall into 
sin) — might find peace, support and comfort upon cer- 
tain easy and clearly specified conditions. Therefore 
the atonement was not for the sin of Adam and Eve 
alone; but conditionally for the sins of the race — for 
all his decendants in general, as well as for each and 
every one in particular; i. e., depending upon re- 
pentance and faith in all adults. 

Thus Christ is your savior and mine, not only in 
the sense of existence, but also as a full and sufficient 
sacrifice, obligation and satisfaction for sin — your 
saviour and mine in all that pertains to our well- 
being, both for soul and body — both for time and for 
eternity. 

Hence to every one of us He is " the All in All " — 
"the Chief among ten thousand — the One altogether 
lovely " — " the mighty God — the Prince of peace — 
the everlasting Father; " Isaiah, 9: 6. 

Or, in the lines composed by our lamented P. P. 
Bliss; and so often and grandly sung by him: 

" The whole world was lost in the darkness of sin; 
The light of the world is Jesus. 
Like sunshine at noonday, His glory shone in; 
The light of the world is Jesus. 

Come to the light, 'tis shining for thee; 
Sweetly the light has dawn'd upon me; 
Once I was blind, now I can see; 
The light of the world is Jesus." 



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